New Tourism Policy of Bhutan
The New Tourism Policy of Bhutan redefines the impact of mass tourism from regional tourists and directs the High value and low impact without affecting the philosophy of Gross National Happiness. It is the quality of every Bhutanese to be offering the best of best to whoever travel to Bhutan. It is natural beauty for us to ensure visitors coming to Bhutan have the most memorable experience and get the very best of Bhutanese hospitality.
It is indisputable that the government falls back on the fundamentals of the country’s tourism policy that originated from our wise monarchs. A small nation has come this far, sailing on the wisdom and guidance of our Kings.
“Similarly, when Bhutan opened to foreign tourists in the 1970s, our leadership resisted the temptations to harness the quick fortunes from mass tourism and instead was prescient to formulate a visionary policy of High Value – Low Volume tourism. The wisdom of our tourism policy has led to the emergence of a strong Brand Bhutan – an exclusive destination”.
Amendment of Tourism Levy Exemption Act in the National Assembly this session of the winter Parliament session was to redefine the new Tourism policy of Bhutan. Among other alterations, The present government under Namrup Government proposed a levy of Nu 1,200 per night halt to the regional leisure tourists visiting the country(From India, Bangladesh, and Maldives).
While the SDF(Sustainable Development Fund) component had to route through the Parliament given its monetary nature, we have more features aligning towards the vision, elaborated in the overall tourism policy the government developed. It will be rolled out in July this year.
For now, we thank our members of the National Assembly for the unconditional support of our proposal today. This is a clear message that we are all together when it comes to placing the nation’s interests first.