Bhutan welcomes first group of international tourists in two years

Bhutan’s first group of international travellers in two years arrived on April 2, raising hopes that the Buddhist nation’s tourism industry may be on the road to recovery from what has been a long drawn near death experience.

The mixed group of 34 travellers from the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, Germany and France, all Buddhists, will be in the country for 27 nights. And they are in the country at a time when the 14 day mandatory quarantine for all arrivals has been reduced to five days from April 4^th. (The visitors are exempted from the sustainable development fee of USD 65 a day for the quarantine period.)

The hope is by fall quarantine requirements for vaccinated travellers will be scrapped, assuming no new threatening COVID 19 variant emerges.

Bhutan began easing restrictions last month after children aged 5 -11 years received their first COVID shots. Today more than 90 percent of the population is fully vaccinated and more than 70 percent of the population 12 years and above have received the third dose.

The focus is now on the number hospitalisations as the key metric to determine how well the country is managing the pandemic rather than the number of detected cases. So far hospitalisations have been negligible.

When the pandemic struck two years ago, Bhutan enforced some of most stringent interventions through travel restrictions, mandatory quarantine and lockdowns every time a community case was detected. The priority was saving lives and preventing the country’s inadequate healthcare system from being overwhelmed.

This approach enabled Bhutan to handle the pandemic better than most countries and kept deaths to among the lowest in the world. Since the pandemic began Bhutan has recorded only 12 COVID deaths amongst those with underlying health conditions.

Today as the country opens up to allow for more economic activity, saving lives is still a priority and special covid centres have been set up all across the country for the most vulnerable populations. Bhutan is already planning a fourth dose for the vulnerable population as it further relaxes restrictions to revive the economy and welcome more visitors.