As part of efforts to attract a larger number of visitors and accelerate the recovery process of the tourism sector from COVID-19 damages, authorities in Bhutan have decided to cut the $200 daily fee it charges tourists.
With pretendings that money would go to offset the carbon generated by travelers, Bhutan leaders increased the “Sustainable Development Fee” to $200 per visitor per night, from $65 when COVID-related restrictions came to an end in September last year, VisaGuide.World reports.
The government of Bhutan, through a statement, confirmed that the decision for the new rate of $100 per night will become effective from September and last for a period of four years.
“This is in view of the important role of the tourism sector in generating employment, earning foreign exchange … and in boosting overall economic growth,” it said.
In the last six months, Bhutan saw nearly 25,000 tourists after two-and-a-half years of bans and restrictions imposed due to COVID-19.
“We expect about 100,000 travelers in 2023, of which the bulk is from India. We should be able to come back to 2019-2020 levels by 2025,” the director-general of Bhutan’s Department of Tourism, Dorji Dhradhul, said in an interview.
Based on the calculations of the government, it will take about three years for tourism to recover to pre-pandemic levels of 300,000 a year.
Until 2019-20, the tourism industry contributed nearly five percent to Bhutan’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“In a way, we started from ground zero last year…In 2019, we received 315,000 tourists on the back of 50 years of tourism,” he pointed out.
The government of Bhutan facilitated the rules applied on length of stay and fees for tourists; however, the numbers have not picked up as expected.
In addition, Dhradhul stressed that over 56,000 tourists had visited Bhutan since January, but nearly 42,000 were nationals of India, who only have to pay a fee of 1,200 Indian rupees ($14.5) a day.
Nearly 50,000 Bhutanese are employed in tourism, thus earning about $84 million a year in the three years before the beginning of the pandemic in foreign exchange.
Authorities in Bhutan are dealing with limited access when it comes to international flights and mainly operate their own airline.
The Director-general of Bhutan’s Department of Tourism said that the readiness of the industry might take some time in order to come back to full capacity after, for a good part of these 2.5 years, the tourism sector was shut, and domestic travel was also limited.