Tourism Tariff 10 March, 2010 - The country’s tour operators are doubly happy about the government’s decision to strike down the tariff liberalisation proposal and instead raise it to USD 250 a tourist a day.

Many tour operators felt the new tariff revision was timely as the old USD 200 tariff existed since 1989, when the 36-year old tourism sector was run by the government. It was handed over to the private sector in 1991.

Failure on the government’s part to hold consultations with tour operators on a decision in which they had a major stake was the main reason for the initial commotion, representatives of tour companies felt.

“The executive order came as a surprise, because none of us tour operators, guides or hoteliers were consulted,” an association for Bhutanese tour operators (ABTO) official said. “We were told the order was final and the decision absolute.”

ABTO officials said they attended only two presentations the McKinsey made on tourism, but their feedback was not considered. “The tariff wasn’t discussed at all in both the meetings,” another ABTO official said.

The revised tariff of USD 250 a day, ABTO officials said, was approved since 2008, but left unimplemented because of the global recession. “We postponed implementation of the new tariff,” Sonam D Dorjee said. “The world is recovering from recession, so we might as well use the new tariff.”

BTO’s general secretary, Sonam Dorji, said the executive order failed to clarify and convince tour operators how liberalising tariff would work for Bhutan.

“It’s not that we were against it, but we felt that we weren’t ready to liberalise the tariff without a proper strategy, system and infrastructure in place,” he said.

He said the tourism council of Bhutan (TCB) lacked the capacity, while the private sector lost their confidence in TCB with regard to implementing the tariff liberalisation appropriately. “If TCB had been able to convince us, we’d have said yes,” he said.

TCB argued that the executive order was still in force and initiatives such as destination marketing and aviation were being considered to bring in the 100,000 tourists.

The 100,000 tourists, ABTO officials said, was just a target the government set. “It means that, by the next two to three years, our total tourist arrival should reach around 100,000,” Sonam Dorji said. “It’s not an absolute figure, but we’ll work towards achieving it.”

Tour operators said that, as long as the country had the necessary infrastructure, such as standard hotels across the country, more entry and exits points and shorter visa processing formalities, bringing 100,000 tourists was not an issue.

Sonam Dorji added that appointing public relation officers abroad to market Bhutan more rigorously would also help bring tour operators closer to achieving the target.