The government has already identified more than 100 acres of land across Bhutan for the creation of tourism infrastructure like quality hotels, spas, wellness centers. In total the government would acquire 500 acres with 180 acres in the centre, 120 acres in the south, 110 acres in the west and 60 acres in the east.
“The government last month invited expression of interest from any interested parties for the development of tourism infrastructure in these places,” said gross national happiness commission (GNHC) secretary, Karma Tshiteem.
This is part of a series of executive orders issued in late 2009 by the cabinet, based on a McKinsey plan for tourism centred around the 9 initiatives.
9 Initiatives of the new tourism policy:
- Destination marketing – Developing and promoting Bhutan as a brand.
- Aviation – Domestic airports
- Supply creation – More high quality hotels and tourist infrastructure
- Price and Channel – Abolish minimum package and liberalise tariff
- Supply upgradation – 3 star hotels and mandate tourist stays in them
- Integrated tourism infrastructure – Roads, electricity, spas, cafes, etc.
- Tourist amenities – Credit card, online visa and no road permits
- Sustainable tourism – Policy based on GNH to carry out tourism
- Tourism governance – Autonomous and corporate TCB
Another move is that, after getting autonomy for the tourism council of Bhutan, the TCB secretariat is now in the process of becoming a corporate entity.
The secretariat’s employees will not be civil servants but recruited from the civil service, private sector and international experts, who would be compensated on the basis of their performance. There would also be a performance management system for the staff. Budget for the secretariat will also be based on the performance and results given by it.
“This autonomy will enable TCB to function in an agile manner so that can it can be much more dynamic to get things done,” said Karma Tshiteem.
The online credit card system is expected to be functional by April 2010. “We expect this move to make a significant impact since Bhutan till date didn’t have a credit card system, which inhibited tourists from spending more.”
Tourists will also soon face no road permit restrictions to travel across Bhutan, except for a few monuments and areas drawn up as a negative list by the home ministry.
Visa processes are also expected to be online by March 2010 as compared to the manual processing done by home ministry right now.
TCB is also being allocated Nu 26 mn for destination marketing this year. As part of this, the government is close to finalising the election of an international advertisement agency to brand and market Bhutan. It is also in the process of getting in touch with reputed international tour companies that handle premium or high paying tourists.
The government will also soon be coming up with blueprints for the digital intermediaries like websites to empower and help tourists know about to Bhutan. Another blueprint system for star rating the community and campsites stays is also in pipeline.
The hotels association of Bhutan is in close negotiation with the finance ministry over the various incentives like tax breaks and duty exemptions for upgrading tourist hotels to three star category.
“TCB is also in the middle of developing the three additional tourism circuits of eastern, southern and central Bhutan and various products throughout the calendar year,” said Karma Tshiteem.
A committee of NEC, MoA, TCB, GNHC and MoHCA is also framing guidelines and standard for a green and sustainable tourism in Bhutan based on GNH.
This would look at mandating environment friendly designed hotels, spas and other tourism amenities. The green policy also includes conserving wildlife and bio diversity and using tourism revenues for preserving important heritage sites and enhancing community infrastructure.
Community based tourism would also be encouraged and be geared towards generating employment and ensure fair wages.
On the liberalisation of tariff rates, though there is an executive order and a committee looking at it, the matter will be discussed in meeting between the prime minister, cabinet members and the various associations of tour operators, hotels and guides in late February.
Karma Tshiteem said that most of the information and recommendation on tourism were already present with the government and McKinsey was helping to collate it together and implement it in a certain time frame and also fill in some gaps like destination marketing.