{"id":989,"date":"2010-09-26T09:56:45","date_gmt":"2010-09-26T03:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/?p=989"},"modified":"2010-09-26T09:56:45","modified_gmt":"2010-09-26T03:56:45","slug":"low-volume-is-now-low-impact-but-value-stays-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/26\/low-volume-is-now-low-impact-but-value-stays-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Low volume is now low impact-But value stays high"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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Bhutan\u2019s much lauded tourism policy, is not anymore \u201chigh value, low volume.\u201d It\u2019s now \u201chigh value, low impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201clow impact\u201d on culture and environment as the tourism council of Bhutan (TCB) calls,\u201d has come at a time when the government has committed to increase the \u201cvolume\u201d of tourists visiting Bhutan. In the next two years, it aims to bring in 100,000 tourists, which is about one-sixth of the country\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

For more than three decades, the policy of \u201clow volume\u201d has regulated tourist arrivals in the country. With that, it minimised the \u201cimpact\u201d and brought in a \u201cmanageable\u201d number that its limited infrastructure could support. Bhutan otherwise has no restriction on the number of tourists visiting.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s commitment has made Bhutan open its doors wider. Its \u201chigh value\u201d includes not only \u201cdollar paying\u201d but also \u201chigh end regional\u201d tourists. It has diversified tourism products from culture to nature, with TCB describing Bhutan, the \u201cspiritual land\u201d as a \u201ctrekker\u2019s paradise and an environmentalist\u2019s dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tourists can now visit protected areas, reserves and remote communities. Domestic airports are coming up, so that those parts of the country, that before could be reached after being on the road for days would now be easily reached.<\/p>\n

Hotels have been rated and those that wish to house tourist, upgraded. TCB has also signed \u201cdeals\u201d with seven international tour operators, names of which haven\u2019t been disclosed for \u201cbusiness reasons.\u201d The operators are those, which haven\u2019t marketed Bhutan before.<\/p>\n

To market Bhutan, it has participated at the fruit and tourism fair in Kolkata in 2009, outbound travel mart (OTM) show in Mumbai and the ITB Berlin, a travel trade show early this year. A happiness event in Germany was also held in July this year to market Bhutan to the Europeans.<\/p>\n

All these initiatives are expected to generate 25,000 jobs but how, where and when is not known.<\/p>\n

Explaining the change, TCB said that, the slogan \u201chigh value, low impact\u201d clearly explains Bhutan\u2019s cautious \u201cproduct and values led\u201d approach to tourism development.<\/p>\n

In order to maintain high value, TCB said that the government would continue using financial mechanisms to control volumes. While low impact would be maintained by ensuring that visitors have a sense of care for Bhutanese culture and environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cVolume is a relative term and can vary,\u201d said TCB. \u201cAnd we think low negative socio-cultural and environmental impact is more specific, regarding our tourism development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhutan, said officials has successfully promoted itself as an exclusive long-stay destination for tourists, with a tourist on average spending about USD 330 a day and staying about eight days in the country. The index is calculated by the total international tourist arrivals in a year divided by the country\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

But Bhutan still has the lowest tourist intensity index at 0.06, much lower than most comparable countries, said the website on accelerating Bhutan\u2019s socio-economic development (ABSD).<\/p>\n

How much impact the change in policy would have on the index or in increasing the volume, which tour operators argue would increase anyway, is yet to be seen.<\/p>\n

Source: Sonam Pelden (Kuensel)
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Bhutan\u2019s much lauded tourism policy, is not anymore \u201chigh value, low volume.\u201d It\u2019s now \u201chigh value, low impact.\u201d The \u201clow impact\u201d on culture and environment as the tourism council of Bhutan (TCB) calls,\u201d has come at a time when the government has committed to increase the \u201cvolume\u201d of tourists visiting Bhutan. In the next two … Continue reading Low volume is now low impact-But value stays high<\/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":[8,14,16],"tags":[205,219,579,1352],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gross-national-happiness","category-sustainable-development","category-tourism-bhutan","tag-bhutan","tag-bhutan-travel","tag-gnh","tag-sustainable-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","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=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}