{"id":1056,"date":"2011-01-19T00:10:05","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T18:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2011-01-19T00:10:05","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T18:10:05","slug":"unwto-applauds-gross-national-happiness-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/19\/unwto-applauds-gross-national-happiness-country\/","title":{"rendered":"UNWTO applauds Gross National Happiness country"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Taleb Rifai applauds Bhutan&#8217;s sustainability and quality tourism model<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, has expressed his support for the long-term tourism policy of Bhutan, with its focus on sustainability and quality, on an official visit to the country where he met with acting Prime Minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Royal Government of Bhutan considers tourism \u201ca window of opportunity for the future of Bhutan\u201d said Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, during his meeting with Mr. Rifai. Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba pointed to tourism\u2019s contribution to the economic security and Gross National Happiness &#8211; Bhutan\u2019s measure of wellbeing &#8211; of the Bhutanese people.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Like many other destinations, Bhutan is facing \u201csignificant challenges and strong pressure for change\u201d said Mr. Rifai addressing government officials, private sector representatives and members of development agencies during the seminar \u2018Mainstreaming Tourism\u2019, co-organised by UNWTO and the Bhutan Tourism Council.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cAt UNWTO we acknowledge the tremendous pressure Bhutan is under to stimulate rapid growth in tourism and praise the government for its continued focus on sustainability and quality,\u201d said Mr. Rifai. \u201cThe principle of high-value, low-impact tourism development, guiding tourism\u2019s growth in Bhutan, is highly commendable and has undoubtedly contributed to the unique tourism brand of this country\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A relative newcomer to the international tourism stage, Bhutan has made great achievements in its tourism development over the last decades, securing an international reputation as a top destination.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The country has been a UNWTO Member State since 2003, in which time the two have partnered in the organisation of various technical missions, projects and capacity building programmes for the development and promotion of Bhutan\u2019s tourism sector.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">By Valere Tjolle<br \/>\nValere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite latest information at:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelmole.com\/stories\/1146007.php\">www.travelmole.com\/stories\/1146007.php<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Courtesy: Travelmole.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taleb Rifai applauds Bhutan&#8217;s sustainability and quality tourism model The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, has expressed his support for the long-term tourism policy of Bhutan, with its focus on sustainability and quality, on an official visit to the country where he met with acting Prime Minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba The Royal Government &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/19\/unwto-applauds-gross-national-happiness-country\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">UNWTO applauds Gross National Happiness country<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14,15,16],"tags":[205,609,1203,1351,1352,1406],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gross-national-happiness","category-sustainable-development","category-sustainable-travel","category-tourism-bhutan","tag-bhutan","tag-gross-national-happiness","tag-responsible-tourism","tag-sustainable-development","tag-sustainable-tourism","tag-tourism-bhutan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}