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 4th. (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.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_286" align="alignnone" width="1088"] The Drukgyel Dzong (fortress) in Paro valley.[/caption]

Monsoons in Bhutan

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Kingdom in the clouds, hidden in the mists of time, shrouded in mystery—these metaphors, likely crafted by a marketing guru, are often used to entice visitors seeking a unique experience.

And this is what you’ll see and experience if you visit Bhutan during the monsoon season, which is now.

You’ll encounter mist rising from rain-drenched landscapes, white expended clouds resting gently on mountain tops, water-logged terraced paddy fields mirroring the monsoon skies and gushing waterfalls splashing down rock faces covered in a thin layer of moss.

From late June through August, the waters of the Indian ocean and the Arabian sea, carried by the south westerly winds, travel thousands of kilometres replenishing the Himalayan landscape and water bodies of this Buddhist kingdom.

The waters unpack stunning views of pristine and rugged landscapes, washing away the blue of distant hills to reveal a distinct lush green.

In the temperate valleys of Paro and Thimphu, the most visited locations, days are warm, and nights are cool. In the southern foothills, bordering the great Indian plains, it can get extremely hot and humid. It is here where most of the moisture from the oceans and the Indo-Gangetic plains gets deposited before rising further up to reach the interior valleys and northern highlands.

One traditional activity of the monsoon is mushroom picking. Bhutan has more than 400 types of mushrooms, ranging from edible varieties to deadly poisonous ones, sprouting in the valleys and dense temperate vegetation.

Mushroom dishes cooked with other vegetables and cheese abound during the rainy season and local markets are filled with fresh mushrooms for sale, picked by farmers with deep knowledge and connection with the land.

It’s a refreshing time to be in Bhutan.

Bhutanese summer

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It’s officially summer in Bhutan!

In the temperate valleys, where most of the populations resides, summer is a time of lush green landscapes, blue skies and bright sunshine, the occasional showers and light clothing.

In this last remaining vajrayana Buddhist kingdom, hidden in the eastern Himalayas,  the change of seasons is marked by a centuries-old tradition—the migration of the central monk body, the Zhung Dratshang.

On an overcast morning of May 8, corresponding to the 30th day of the third month of the Wood Male Dragon year of the lunar calendar, the central monastic body left its winter residence in Punakha for the cooler climes of Thimphu, the capital, where it will reside through summer and autumn at the 17th century Tashichhodzong.

The entourage arrived in Thimphu the next day after a night halt in nearby Semtokha Dzong, to large crowds of entire families lining the highway, eagerly waiting to welcome and receive blessings from the chief abbot and sacred relics.

Travelling from Punakha to Thimphu is today a few hours journey by road, but in keeping with a tradition established in the 17th century by the country’s founding father, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel, who set up the monastic body, built a chain of fortresses and unified the country, the procession takes a night and two days to reach its destination, allowing people along the way to make offerings and receive blessings.

The arrival of the monastic body to Thimphu also coincides with the start of the holy month of Saga Dawa, the first day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, which celebrates Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and Parinivana. Consumption of meat is discouraged during this month and slaughter of animals and sale of meat is not allowed.

Since the monastic order moved residence, the long spell of overcast skies and intermittent rains that plunged temperatures to early spring and brought back the jackets, has started to clear up with the weekend experiencing sunny and hot weather.

In the coming weeks, Bhutan is expecting a surge of visitors from its southern neighbour, India, where schools close for the summer break and families travel to cooler destinations to escape the sweltering heat and pollution of the Indian cities.

 

Mandatory travel insurance scrapped

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Travel insurance is no longer mandatory if you are planning to visit Bhutan. This means that travel insurance is not necessary to process for visa to visit Bhutan.

Visa processing for tourists went online more than a year ago, and valid travel insurance for the duration of travel was one of the requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic as a precaution.

This requirement has now been withdrawn, which should make visa processing easier.

Bhutan’s tourism authorities, however, recommend that visitors still possess travel insurance as a precaution against unforeseen emergencies.

Insurance companies within the country offer a number of travel insurance schemes for tourists.

 

Of MICE and footfalls

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Looking for a venue to hold your next meeting or conference? Why not choose Bhutan? 

The Himalayan kingdom’s pristine natural environment and tranquil atmosphere offer the ideal ambiance to rejuvenate and for meaningful and thoughtful discussions. 

All this can happen without having to pay the daily tax or sustainable development fee (SDF), which is USD 100 a night and INR 1,200 for visitors from India. 

Bhutan is promoting itself as a destination for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) events by offering waivers on the SDF to hasten the recovery of its pandemic-battered tourism sector. 

The most recent proposal is to offer daily tax waivers for six nights seven days, not including arrival and travel dates, up from four nights five days announced in January, to participants of MICE events that qualify for the waiver. 

Previously applicable only to government meetings and events, the SDF waiver now covers all eligible tourism-related events organized by tour operators and hoteliers. The event must be organized by a certified Bhutanese tour operator or hotel and must have a minimum of seven participants. The waiver will apply only to participants and not their dependents. 

Requests for MICE SDF waivers must be made at least a month in advance, and a summary of the event, including the outcomes and photographs, must be submitted to the Department of Tourism a month after participants have departed. Since reopening borders in September 2022, after a two-and-a-half-year shutdown, tourism has struggled to recover partly because the SDF was hiked to USD 200 a night from USD 65 a night. A daily tax of INR 1,200 (USD 15) for visitors from India was also implemented. 

Last September, the government offered a 50 percent discount on the SDF, reducing the daily tax to USD 100 a day. The daily tax for Indian visitors remains unchanged. While visitor numbers are gradually picking up with more than 25,000 visitors in the first three months of 2024, it is still below the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, which saw more than 300,000 visitors with two-thirds from India. Then, visitors from the region were not levied any tax, and dollar-paying tourists paid an SDF of USD 65 a night. 

By promoting the MICE market, the government hopes to push footfalls and help out the hotel industry repay loans that have been deferred until June this year. Globally, the MICE market is one of the highest revenue contributors to the tourism industry. Its contribution is projected to reach USD 1.4 trillion next year.

 

It’s now cheaper to visit Bhutan !

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Bhutan is offering a 50 discount on the daily tax levied on dollar paying visitors. It’s now USD 100 a day instead of USD 200, starting September 1. This will continue for the next four years until August end 2027.
This was done to hasten recovery of the tourism industry that was decimated by the covid 19 pandemic. When Bhutan reopened in September 2022 it came with a huge hike in the daily tax, from USD 65 a day to USD 200 a day, to reinforce the ‘high value low volume’ tourism policy, much to the shock of industry players, who were instead expecting concessions to boost recovery.
Since then, the government has introduced numerous other incentives to encourage visitors including sale of duty free gold and allowing budget hotels to operate.
In the past 15 months since reopening more than 83,000 tourists have visited Bhutan with close to 60,000 visitors from neighbouring India who pay 1200 Indian Rupees (USD 15 approx.) as daily tax.
The recent change in the daily dollar tax, known as the sustainable development fee (SDF), is expected to boost overseas visitors in the 2024 spring season, which begins in March. Next year is being billed as the ‘year of Asian travel’ with a focus on well-being and transformative travel. Visit Bhutan through us to feel good and transformed!

Tax free gold

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Thimphu, March 16: There’s one more reason to visit Bhutan – you can buy duty free gold!

To be eligible to buy, visitors should have paid the daily sustainable development fee (SDF) and spent at least a night in a government approved tourist standard accommodation.

Under the scheme, announced on March 1, a person can buy a maximum of 20 grams of gold, to be paid for in hard currency, from outlets in Thimphu, the capital, and in the border town of Phuentsholing, the main road entry point with India.

Bhutan opened its borders in September last year after a two year lull with a revised tourism policy that levies SDF of USD 200 a night for visitors and INR,1200 a night for visitors from India.

Numbers are yet to pick up. Less than 17,000 visited last year. Visitors from India were the largest group with more than 8,000 who paid the SDF of INR 1,200 a night. Visitors paying the USD 200 a night were a little more than 3,000 and the rest were visitors who had booked under the previous SDF of USD 65 a day but were unable to visit because of the pandemic.

The gold scheme is expected to attract visitors from the region, particularly from India, which is globally among the biggest purchasers of gold. As of now Indians go to Dubai to buy gold where it is relatively cheaper.

The Drukgyel Dzong (fortress) in Paro valley.

Bhutan welcomes first group of international tourists in two years

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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 4th. (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.