If the grapevine and the rumormongers are to be believed, two much-awaited events are going to happen:
The Tourism Council Meeting
The word is out that the Council Members of the Tourism Council of Bhutan is scheduled to hold its Council Meeting this evening - between 3 to 5 PM. The stakeholders of the country’s most impactful industry have been reduced to being Alices in Wonderland – clueless, rudderless and directionless. Hopefully, today’s Council Meeting – which had remained suspended for the past one year and three months!!! - will bring clarity and direction to where tourism in this country is headed.
The last Council Meeting was held sometime in March of 2021.
The slumbering Atsara likely to be resurrected soon
Discussion on Tourism Reforms
Whether true or false, it is rumored that the matter relating to tourism reforms would be tabled in the National Assembly for discussion – on 20th June, 2022. Times are hard - planting falsehood and misinformation in the social media has come into vogue in recent times. But if it is true – it is about time!! Reforms are good - and needed. Reforms bring about change and improvement - it brings greater clarity to the aims and aspirations of the industry.
And Bhutan’s tourism policy is in need of change – at a structural level, if it is to continue to provide the largest number of employment and deliver benefit to the largest number of the Bhutanese population.
Naturally this is a major decision. Will the government facilitate and actually support a change in livelihood and infrastructures of those adversely affected by a policy of exclusion? The change in footfall of tourism will impact other industries as well.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, we have all sung the tune ‘low volume, high impact’, yet we have only worked towards bringing in more tourists at competitively lower rates.
A very small percentage of the total curio and craft market is actually produced in Bhutan, yet we have thriving craft markets that will not announce that nearly all their ware is actually acquired in Nepal or India.
Yes, we are removing a strong link in the chain of Bhutans economy. Can we survive even this? The rest of the world has always acted in the interest of profits for the masses, eventually leaving the starving weak behind to fend for themselves in any manner or supporting trade possible.
Will we, as a Bhutanese society become aware of the future needs of our nation? How willing are we to go the distance and let the world know that we are not isolationists? That we are not saying we dont want foreigners in our land… after all, so many of our people are foreigners in countries impacted by our policies.
Would the rumors of a 2million deposit be feasible for all operators?
Will we be able to support one another if directly impacted by the huge hurdle ahead of us?
Will the government support local businesses to upgrade and remove FDI in hospitality so that infrastructure is locally owned to stem the obvious deflection of dollar income? Or nationalize tourism outright?
Is this reform fool proof against the manipulators and the cheats.
Keep a positive outlook, it won’t be easy. A nations policies would not win favor abroad if it’s people don’t hold up its justification collectively.
I look forward to hearing what the government has to say, to see if I am up for this new challenge.