Tourist flow to Bhutan witnesses a surge

HT, 23 May 2016, Kolkata: Will the tiny kingdom of Bhutan be able to sustain the increasing rush of Indian tourists?

Tour and travel operators in India and Bhutan believe that the tiny kingdom should follow a more liberal tourism policy to lessen the pressure on the western region while Bhutanese officials want to be assured that there should be no long adverse impact of unrestricted arrival of tourists.

Bhutan, which believes in the principle of Gross National Happiness, has long been encouraging high value low volume tourism. Though the country has limited infrastructure to handle the tourists, it also boasts of having some of the finest hotels in the region.

For years there has been a sudden rise in Indian tourists and the figure is on the rise each passing year.

Following restricted tourism, the government of Bhutan has largely been promoting tourist destinations in the western parts bordering Bengal. Tourists are given permission to visit the western region on their arrival at Phuntsholing, the western border town. Tourists visiting other regions of Bhutan have to go through a cumbersome process as they have to get separate permission once they reach Thimpu, the capital town.

Raj Basu, convener of Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT), said, “We hope Bhutan will soon liberalise its tourism policy and would expedite the process of issuing permission for Indian tourists.”

Talking to Hindustan Times, Basu said, “There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of Indian tourists.” On certain days, 1,500 to 2,000 Indian tourists reach Bhutan every day which in itself is a record figure, said Basu.

Bhutan has a small population of just over seven lakh.

However, some officials in the Bhutanese tourism department opined that Bhutan was never prepared to handle the pressure of unrestricted arrival of tourists. The arrival of a large number of tourists has forced the government to introspect.

Bhutan considers the tourists from India, Bangladesh and Maldives as regional tourists while the country had been earning large revenue from international tourists.

The meeting of Tourism Council of Bhutan held in Thimpu on April 7 and April 8 took some decisions for policy planning for better cooperation between Bhutan and the North eastern states of India in regard to tourism.

The meeting was also attended by Rakesh Mathur, the vice president of Eco Tourism Society of India, MP Bezbaruah India’s permanent member in United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation, and Basu himself.

Suggestions like issuing of online permits for Indian tourists and to open more borders to facilitate easy arrival of tourists were placed.

The demand for separate centres to issue permission for Indian tourists and Indian labourers at Phuntsholing the border town was also placed. At present the permissions are issued from the same centre.