Tourist’s responsibility is the key element to a sustainable tourism growth… Kinley Wangdi, Corporate Performance Department, Tourism Council of Bhutan

Bhutan reached a historical milestone last year with over 100,000 international travellers. Is there a limit to the tourism growth?

Kinley Wangdi- I know that they are lots of talks about the opening up of our country to tourism. Our government acknowledged a couple of years ago that tourism was one of the most important source of revenues for the country- in fact the second most important after hydropower. We do not think that the number of tourists is an element determining a tourism policy. More interesting it to ask ourselves: how can we manage a certain number of travellers? How far also is the degree of acceptance of our community towards travellers. To receive 100,000 or 40,000 visitors per year does not really matter. A group of 10 badly behaving tourists can create more damage than thousand of respect-minded, self-conscious travellers. Tourist’s responsibility is the key element to a sustainable tourism growth…

How far is the acceptance of the population for now?

K.W. - I am not aware of any rejection for now by the local population. But we do monitor tourism. And our compulsory minimum spending per day helps us to keep tourism under control.
Why to impose this fee which fluctuates between Us$ 20a and 250 per day according to the season?
Kingley Wangdi- Requiring minimum spending from tourists would be catastrophic as we would certainly lose control of the total number of visitors as well as of their quality. It would for example push India to launch packages which would only integrate a small portion into Bhutan and with few financial benefits for local as most of the money would be collected only from the programming  tour operator.

What are Bhutan top visitors?

K.W. - We have a pretty good mix which is good as we cannot depend only from one market. India is the largest as travellers can enter Bhutan through land borders. China is turning into one of our most important markets while Europe remains traditionally a strong incoming tourism market with high spending power. All European countries had last year a market share of almost 33% of all arrivals. However, we think that our future is regional as we see a rapid growth in disposable income from our neighbours. Such as in Thailand for example or in China of course. Both markets represent between 4% and 5% of all arrivals.

What are the main weaknesses of the tourism industry today?

K.W. - I see two weaknesses in out tourism development. This is  the lack of accessibility, although I noticed some progress in recent years. For example, in the air transport sector where we do not depend anymore from a single carrier –Bhutan national airline Druk Air- as we now have new entrants, including a Bhutanese new carrier. we have to find ways to attract more investors, especially in the hotel sector. Human resources are a second handicap as we do not have enough skilled workers. We lack training schools in tourism. We only have one tourism school since 2010. The Royal Institute for Tourism and Hospitality (RITH) is funded by the federal Austrian Government with the involvement of the University of Salzburg. The government also sends many students outside Bhutan to Australia, Canada, India or Thailand.

What are the main motivations for visiting Bhutan?
K.W. - I would probably name our living culture and our heritage are the main movtivations to our country. Then comes for me an exceptional nature with spectacular landscapes; then Buddhism and meditation, whayt I would call the route to lifestyle…

Sourced: TravelDailyNews