Hundred percent foreign investment will be allowed in the construction of five-star hotels in Bhutan on a selective basis to overcome the shortage of financial capital in the domestic market and up the quality of services pro\u00advided to tourists visiting Bhutan.<\/p>\n
However, in the four-star hotel category, as sug\u00adgested by the hoteliers, the government agreed that foreign investments will be allowed up to 70%, in order to create opportu\u00adnities for the local entre\u00adpreneurs.<\/p>\n
The prime minister, Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley, said that the Bhutanese economy can\u00adnot mobilize the kind of money necessary to build five-star hotels. Besides, reputed luxury hotels brought in expertise, experience, and even their own clientele.<\/p>\n
High-end tourist des\u00adtinations need high end hotels, he said. The decision on foreign investment was made in the wake of apprehen\u00adsions expressed by the Bhutanese hoteliers that they may not be able to upgrade their hotels within two years to meet the quality requirements mandated by the govern\u00adment to shore up tourism in Bhutan.<\/p>\n
The Hotel Association of Bhutan (HAB) submitted that of the total of 121 ho\u00adtels in the country, 28 per cent (34 hotels) were rated as three-star and above, and the rest (87 hotels) as two-star and below.<\/p>\n
Tandin Dorji (Ph.D), representing HAB, said that structural augmenta\u00adtion of the hotels would be difficult as most hotels were already debt-ridden and would not be able to obtain loans. Roughly, the upgradation would require the local hoteliers to cough up Nu 437 million.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The bleak financial situ\u00adation was exacerbated by the fact that the current occupancy rate was as low as 10 to 15 percent, not to mention 46 new hotels that were under various stages of construction.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe financial institu\u00adtions have stopped giving loans for hotel construc\u00adtion in Bumthang and Paro so how can we up\u00adgrade without loans?\u201d He went on to argue that it was not the quality of hotels that mattered but the services provided to the tourists, and recom\u00admended soft face-lift, refurbishment and qual\u00adity of services rather than physical infrastructure. He added that 71 per cent of tourists were satisfied with the hotels, as indicated in the Tourism Council of Bhutan\u2019s annual report, 2008. \u201cWe should allow the market forces to take its course without being man\u00addated by the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In response, the prime minister said that high end destination is non-negotiable. Those unwill\u00ading would not only be edged out of the market but it was also the moral and ethical responsibility to provide good services to clients. \u201cEvery individual must upgrade their skills and services,\u201d he said. \u201cThe idea is not to exclude you out of the tourism indus\u00adtry but to push you into elevating the standards.\u201d Without continual im\u00adprovement, after a decade or so Bhutan would no more be an exclusive des\u00adtination.<\/p>\n
The government will provide incentives that would make the upgrada\u00adtion possible, including tax breaks for up to 10 years for new hotels.<\/p>\n
By: Dawa T Wangchuk Bhutan to allow 100% FDI for 5-star luxury hotels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,16],"tags":[205,211,216,219],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sustainable-development","category-sustainable-travel","category-tourism-bhutan","tag-bhutan","tag-bhutan-luxury-travel","tag-bhutan-tour","tag-bhutan-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","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=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSoruce: Bhutan Today<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"