Killing The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs

I am constrained for time this morning - thus I am unable to blog. Fortunately, a reader has left a very powerful comment on my last blog – I am reproducing it below for your reading pleasure.

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The Goose that lays the golden eggs being triangulated until pronounced dead! 

The powers that be will rue the day that the Tourism Levy Bill was shoved down the throats of protesting Bhutanese, without an honest consultation. When the Constitution of Bhutan was taken to all corners of the country to be debated and discussed, such was not the case with this bill.

Erroneous calculations of the 65$ from 1991 in today's values were used as an argument. That amount in today's value would be roughly 140$, not 700$ as Lyonchhen said. So the premise is mathematically wrong. No respectable guide would work for 700 Nu. a day! I remember guides making 1500-3000 Nu. a day, and 5000 Nu. a day on some treks. Next, this whole point about all Bhutanese being stakeholders in tourism. Fine, in that case, then every Bhutanese must be stakeholders in mining, forestry, even hydropower, and every business under DHI. Businesses pay taxes, and in tourism there is also the SDF. These two components are taken for all Bhutanese, but people who toil and run the industry should also benefit. During the last few years, every agency (government, NGOs and even Banks) have been clamoring to support entrepreneurship. Well, the tourism industry has created hundreds of successful entrepreneurs on its own, becoming the second highest revenue earner for the country.

The hydropower myth has been shattered. In over 4 decades, we are still shackled to the whims of India on the conditions of our hydropower projects. We have not exported hydropower technology and knowhow to SE Asia or other regions as we said we will. Instead, we are dependent on what India and Indian companies provide us. Yes, we get revenue from hydropower export, but that is negated by our import of fossil fuels alone. India has been a good friend so far, but nothing is free. They keep us under their thumb - from election meddling (as in 2013) to agriculture export strangulation (although we are supposed to have free trade) to petroleum imports. Every ministry or agency likes the ‘free’ GOI money to build their grand buildings, but at what cost (if they really realize this)? As His Majesty repeatedly commands, we have to be intelligent citizens - we have to love our country intelligently. We have to mature as a nation state, and in order to do that we have to have our fundamentals right to build a strong foundation. But, even as Puna I and II are facing major delays and cost escalations, we are going headlong into Kholongchhu. Is no one to blame when the country is taken hostage???

Now we are dismantling the next industry - tourism. We are literally killing the goose that laid golden eggs. If you are referring to the hogwash draft ‘21st Century Economic Roadmap’ for guidance, then I feel sorry that the whole justification for making tourism ‘free for all’ is wrong. The Economic Roadmap whines that hotels were running at 80% less occupancy - well, build less hotels then! Don't give out loans. You don't dismantle the whole tourism industry that really worked and created hundreds of entrepreneurs. Yes, many things can be improved, but was it necessary to dismantle what was working? We are now pushing for mass unwanted tourism.

We are lucky that Bhutan is a strong brand. Our environment and environmental policies carried us proudly on the world stage. Why did His Majesty the Great Fourth recently receive the Blue Planet prize, even long after his reign? Because it was during his golden reign that Bhutan jumped to the fore of global environmental leadership. These days, we talk about carbon neutrality, but there is no check on fossil fuels and vehicle imports. And you think hiring a PR firm will bring high-end tourists? Haven't we done that before? Our best marketers were GNH, the travel agents, the government and really just the country (how we governed, lived, and marched to different beat).

I don't know who the advisors are, but they need grounding in reality, data, and feedback.