Bhutan's Department of Tourism said that the new rate of USD 100 per night would come into effect from September and last for four years (Sketch by: Shikha Shah)
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has announced that it will halve the USD 200 daily fee it charges tourists as ‘Sustainable Development Fee’ (SDF), in an effort to boost the tourism sector that is still struggling to recover from the pandemic blow.
In a press statement, Bhutan’s Department of Tourism said that the new rate of USD 100 per night would come into effect from September and last for four years.
Last September when it reopened for international tourism after two years of closure due to Covid-19, Bhutan had raised its SDF from USD 65 to USD 200 per visitor per night, saying the money would go to offset the carbon generated by visitors.
Dorji Dhradhul
“The halving of the fee could boost arrivals in the September-December peak tourist period, which includes many religious and cultural events in the mainly Buddhist country,” says Dorji Dhradhul, Director General of the Department of Tourism.
Dhradhul said more than 56,000 tourists had visited Bhutan since January but about 42,000 were Indian nationals, who only have to pay a fee of INR 1,200 (USD 14.5) a day.
Isolated for generations, Bhutan opened to tourists in 1974 when it received 300 visitors. The department says that numbers had soared to 315,600 in 2019 as per official data, up 15.1 pc from a year earlier.
It adds that Bhutan has always been wary of the impact of mass tourism and bans mountain climbing to preserve the sanctity of its peaks. The tourist fee has limited arrivals to bigger spenders who make up a fraction of the numbers that visit nearby Nepal. Nevertheless, Bhutan hopes to raise the contribution of tourism to its USD 3 billion economy to 20 pc, from the current level of about 5 pc.
The statement says that in June, the government eased rules on length of stay and fees for tourists but numbers have not picked up as expected. About 50,000 Bhutanese are employed in tourism which earned about USD 84 million a year in the three years before the pandemic in foreign exchange.
“This is in view of the important role of the tourism sector in generating employment, earning foreign exchange and in boosting overall economic growth,” says the department.
