Nomadic community gears up for guests/tourists

Around 46 locals are being trained as cooks and guides for tourists

Merak-Sakteng : Around 46 Merak and Sakteng locals will be trained to guide tourists and cook, as the nomadic community in north eastern Trashighang opens officially to tourists next month.

A team of around eight experienced guides and trekking cooks is conducting the training for 15 days each in Merak and Sakten for 10 local guides and 36 cooks, said a tourism council of Bhutan (TCB) official. The training starts today.

Of the 10 would be local guides, eight are class XII dropouts, and the rest are classes IX and X dropouts. “The cooks will be trained in preparing both continental and local food that blend with the tastes of tourists,” a TCB official said. Continue reading Nomadic community gears up for guests/tourists

How much is too many? Tourists

The trickle down effect

The ministry of agriculture and the tourism council of Bhutan signed a memorandum of understanding to open protected areas for tourists. The idea is to diversify tourism and ensure that local community derives the benefit of the industry that generates the second highest income for the government, after hydropower. Continue reading How much is too many? Tourists

Costa Rica looks to Bhutan for happiness

Costa Rica is consulting with Bhutan for how to remain among the happiest places on earth.

A small country of 680,000 inhabitants, the Kingdom of Bhutan is located in the Himalaya mountains on the eastern border of India, and is the only country in the world to measure the happiness of their country like most countries measure their gross domestic product.

Costa Rica, which topped a list drawn up by the United Kingdom’s New Economics Foundation for being the country with the highest life satisfaction, is looking to Bhutan for tips on how to remain in first place.

Bhutan began measuring the happiness of its people in 2008. On a census distributed nationwide, the last question on the form was, “Are you happy?” a question which 97 percent answered affirmatively. Continue reading Costa Rica looks to Bhutan for happiness

Will the tobacco ban work this time?

The ban on tobacco has resurfaced again from its dormancy. While it is for everyone to guess whether it will be successful this time round, one thing is certain; the sellers have laughed their way to the bank all the while.

The ban succeeded in inflating the price of tobacco products, but achieved little in restricting its inflow. Tobacco has been smuggled into the country in myriad of ways, some ingenious. And the ban could not match the ingenu­ity of the people. There is no assurance that the same thing will not happen again.

The law-makers have at­tributed the failure to im­proper implementation. But the truth might be that the ban itself was lopsided. It is not il­legal for people to use tobacco products; only selling is an offence. This elicited failure.

One need not be an econo­mist to see the marketability of an item dictated by its de­mand It is not the sellers who force people to buy but the buyers who persuade them to sell. As long as demand exists, sellers may go to any length to sell it. Therefore, the prison penalty, which is meant to intimidate people, may not be the ultimate solution. At any rate, three to five- year prison term seems a little irrational considering the gravity of the crime.

It appears as though we, in Bhutan, are short of reasons to send people to prison. If the implementation should happen as resolved, a time will come when our prisons will be filled to the limit. There will be a dire need to build more pris­ons making the government bear greater financial implica­tion than the ban itself.

Tobacco is a big killer. No one can argue that. But it is for an individual to decide wheth­er one should use it or not. If people wish to smoke even after realizing it is injurious to their health, so be it. Everyone has the right to compass his own end. It looks like the ban infringes into the personal choice of the people.

If tobacco should be banned because it is injurious to health, what about the vehicle fumes that we inhale more abundantly everyday? Should we put a ban on the use of vehicles? Should we censor every other bad thing that we see before us? Continue reading Will the tobacco ban work this time?

Revised Sales Tax And Custom Duty:Imported cars to cost more

Starting today all imported vehicles entering the country will be subjected to a revised sales tax and custom duty, according to a finance ministry notification. This includes those vehicles ordered months ago that have not reached Bhutan as of today.

The sales tax and custom duty were increased, based on the cylinder capacity or cc (cubic centimeter volume of the engine cabin), and categorised vehicles into petrol and diesel run vehicles.

However, vehicles imported from India will only have to pay an increased sales tax. Sales tax for petrol and diesel vehicles imported from third countries is up by five percent for vehicles up to 1500 cc, and by 15 percent for vehicles above 1501cc.

Custom duty for petrol and diesel vehicles up to 2500 cc has been increased by 10 percent, and by 30 percent for vehicles above 2501 cc. Continue reading Revised Sales Tax And Custom Duty:Imported cars to cost more

The Buddhist Outlook & Bhutan

Written by ManjuWakhley, Oxford,UK
Since Bhutan is predominantly a Buddhist country, policies often stem from Buddhist perception and ethics. Buddhist philosophy stresses the importance of all sentient beings and how all beings are interdependent. This notion also agrees with the scientific ecosystem theory that all species have a place and a function. The relationship between human beings and the environment is seen in a fundamentally different way as compared to the western approach. While the latter is based on the Christian instrumental view that nature exists solely for the benefit of mankind, the Buddhist concept of Sunyata (Form and Emptiness) holds that no subject or object has an independent existence; rather it dissolves into a web of relationships with all dimensions of its environment. Buddhism perceives reality as circular and not linear unlike western thought, which means human form is a part of the Karmic cycle and is really difficult to obtain, all forms are transient and therefore sustainable development is in everybody’s self interest instead of just that of the nature and future. Bhutan has never exploited it natural resources on grounds of commercial profitability. Continue reading The Buddhist Outlook & Bhutan

NGO Spotlight: VAST Bhutan (Voluntary Artists’ Studio Thimphu)

There are countless non-profit art organizations in the world. While most of them utilize the power art holds for positive and productive social purposes, VAST Bhutan stands apart from the rest.  I have had the privilege of witnessing the workings of VAST, first hand, over the last six weeks. It is always an incredible thing to participate in social services, but VAST’s volunteers have reminded me how true activism through art can benefit a world.
VAST has initiated several special projects alongside the regular classes that are taught by its volunteers- projects that are born out of the core of true humanitarianism.  Last year, volunteers came together to develop a rice bank to help the needy. They also built a home for a family in Punakha.  While both of these projects were incredible, VAST’s ‘Make a Wish’ project deserves particular recognition.

For futher information on VAST bhuan please visit:   http://www.vast-bhutan.org/

(Courtesy: BusinessBhutan)

Higher taxes on junk food! eat junk, pay more

Koka, Wai Wai, Coke, Lays potatoes and Rockbee connoisseurs will have to find a GNH food alternative

Bhutanese consumers could soon end up paying higher rates for alcohol and foods classified as junk like carbonated drinks, potato chips, chocolates etc.

The Ministry of Finance along with its Department of Revenue and Customs are in the process of drawing up a list of alcohol and junk food products for taxation based on cabient instructions.

The Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley in a press conference said the government had identified a list of food items as junk that would impair the health of especially children and so would be taxed higher. He gave the example of soda water.

“The new taxation policy structure, which Lyonpo Wangdi Norbu will be reporting to the National Assembly, has differentiated what constitutes healthy consumer items and what constitutes items that will accelerate the kind of problem for Bhutan associated with life style diseases,” said Lyonchen.

“When Lyonchen has said that taxation should be there on these products to discourage their use, the tax will have to be more than moderate to do so,” said Nima Wangdi, finance ministry’s director general.  On the taxation structure the DG said the ministry had options of up to 150% tax.

The Director General said that all manufactured and processed food items that are addictive, fatty, unhealthy, having harmful chemicals like mono sodium and too much sugar would fall under the category of junk food. Continue reading Higher taxes on junk food! eat junk, pay more

Bhutan Tour and the Daily Tariff

Can Bhutan bring in more tourists at a higher tariff? According to a majority of tour operators in the country that today number around 300 it may not be possible.

In other words, it’s going to be difficult to meet the government’s target of bringing in 100,000 dollar paying tourists by 2013, when the official tariff goes up from USD 200 to USD 250 a day.

Given the existing policy of ‘high value low volume’ tourism, USD 200 a day is generally seen as expensive, because it is assumed to be the cost of the daily visa fee.

It’s surprising that, even after all these years of opening up to tourism, most prospective tourists do not know that the USD 200 a day also covers the cost for food, lodge, transport and guide services. There’s a serious communication gap that needs to be bridged.

Still, the notion that tourists may decide to go some place else instead of coming to Bhutan because official tariffs have gone up by USD 50 does not sound convincing, when every blessed year Bhutan keeps featuring as one of the top tourist destinations in the world. Continue reading Bhutan Tour and the Daily Tariff

Bhutan hopes SAARC summit would boost tourism

Thimpu, April 25 (IANS): Bhutan hopes the upcoming 16th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) here will help revive the country’s jaded tourism industry.

For the first time, this Himalayan kingdom will host a summit of the eight-member grouping April 28-29. The summit will mark the 25th year of the establishment of the regional body.

The tourism sector has been a nonstarter in Bhutan due to limited resources and lack of infrastructure, although the country is endowed with beautiful landscapes and rich wildlife.

Bhutan now hopes more foreign tourists would visit this landlocked country after it gets wide publicity during the summit.

The authorities in Thimpu have already gone into a rigorous drive to upgrade the infrastructure in view of the international conference.

Markets, restaurants and hotels were renovated to show the warm hospitality of the people of Bhutan when the dignitaries would come here for the summit, Kinley Dorji, secretary at Information and Communication Ministry, told Xinhua.

The infrastructure that has been upgraded would serve the tourism sector in the future, he said.

According to National Statistics Bureau of Bhutan, tourist arrival in the country is increasing every year. In 2009, more than 28,000 tourists visited the country, compared to 27,636 in 2008.

‘Within three years, we are hoping to increase tourist arrival by three times to 100,000 annually,’ said Dorji.

Since 1947, Bhutan has followed a ‘high value, low volume’ tourism policy, he added.

Tourists’ arrival in the country has been within the capacity of its socio-cultural and natural environment to absorb visitors without negative impacts. Tourism is Bhutan’s largest commercial source of convertible currency earnings.

Source: Yahoo News