Bhutan will cut its daily visitor fee in half in an effort to attract more travelers.
25.08.2023 - 13:21 / skift.com / Peden Doma Bhutia
Last year, Bhutan sent a shock to its tourism sector by raising its so-called sustainable development fee from $65 to $200 per night, per person for all tourists, excluding Indian nationals, who are charged $15 (Rs 1200) per night, per guest.
Now, even though it has a modest goal of just 98,000 tourists this year, the country is acknowledging the challenges the fee has created and is introducing several incentives to encourage longer stays:
Earlier this year, Bhutan had also started offering duty-free gold to visitors. Guests would have to spend at least one night in a certified hotel to avail the special duty-free pricing and would need to pay for the gold in U.S. dollars.
Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering highlighted the collaborative approach taken in developing these options for longer stays, considering industry feedback and recommendations from the Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators.
The tourism department recently announced that through May 10, a little more than 52,000 tourists had arrived in Bhutan since its post-Covid reopening on September 23.
More than 32,000 were from India, while a little less than 20,000 were international and paid the fee of $200 per night.
This reduction in fees will give tourists an opportunity to explore more of the country, especially the eastern part of Bhutan, beyond Bumthang, said Garab Dorji, CEO of travel company Truly Bhutan.
“We hope that these incentives will also increase the number of arrivals of dollar-paying tourists. We now have much better road connectivity than in the past, which will help them save up on the travel time,” said Dorji.
Bhutan sees tourism as a key growth driver, Dorji Dhradhul, director general of the department of tourism of Bhutan, told Skift.
Dhradhul said the sustainable development fee enables investment in transformative programs that preserve cultural traditions, protect heritage and environment and upgrade infrastructure.
“Some of the money goes towards offsetting the carbon footprint of visitors by planting trees, up-skilling workers in the tourism sector, cleaning and maintaining trails, reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuels and electrifying Bhutan’s transportation sector,” Dhradhul said.
In light of its vulnerability to climate change, including glacial melting, floods, and unpredictable weather patterns, Bhutan is increasing its efforts to maintain its position as one of the world’s rare carbon-negative countries. To support this objective, the country is also directing its sustainable development funds towards this cause, Dhradhul added.
Kapil Chopra, founder and CEO of The Postcard Hotel, who runs The Postcard Dewa in the Bhutanese capital city of Thimphu, appreciated the fee reduction, but
Bhutan will cut its daily visitor fee in half in an effort to attract more travelers.
Marriott, the leading hotel company in India, is set to introduce its 17th brand in the country — Moxy.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is set to reduce its $200 daily tourist fee by half, Reuters reported. The reason? The famously isolationist country, a mountainous sanctuary landlocked between behemoths China and India, is struggling to revitalize its tourism sector a year after dropping its pandemic-related restrictions.
Hyatt, Marriott, and MGM Resorts have been hit with lawsuits since 2019 over how they disclose mandatory resort fees. The companies have since changed how they disclose resort fees on their websites and apps.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is to halve the $200 daily fee it charges tourists in an effort to boost a sector still struggling to recover a year after the end of Covid-19 restrictions.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, November 11. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Capital One, which led a $170 million investment round in travel app Hopper in 2021, has added $96 million to the kitty, and the companies announced a long-term partnership between Hopper and Capital One Travel.
For centuries thousands of pilgrims a year have made the journey to Bethany Beyond The Jordan, a site on the east bank of the Jordan River which Christians believe to be the exact spot where Jesus was baptised.
India is making a PCR Covid test mandatory for inbound arrivals from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea, from January 1.
It gets harder and harder with each year to put a label on the kinds of travel that Skifters love the most. We hired a bunch of new people last year and, as you will see, that has meant we are dreaming much bigger.
Having started as a mom-and-pop travel agency, EaseMyTrip today figures among the largest online travel agencies (OTA) in India with a market capitalization of $1.1 billion while being completely bootstrapped.
Fly91, a new Indian airline named after the country’s telephone code, is aiming to take advantage of India’s rising middle class by focusing its services on second and third-tier cities.