Bhutan’s Hotel Industry in Crisis

Going by the following article appearing in the Kuensel of November 15, 2024, it appears that the crisis we had feared was being created is now a reality:

Even as the rumblings of the call for dismantling of the Minimum Daily Package Rate (MDPR) was gaining momentum, sometime during early 2022 a joint meeting was held between some select members of the Bhutan Sustainable Tourism Society (BSTS), Hotel & Restaurant Association of Bhutan (HRAB) and Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO).

Voicing the collective concerns of the BSTS members, I was explicit in making the following point:

“Should the MDPR be dismantled, the hotel owners will stand to suffer the most”.

During a restricted gathering of select media personnel called for by the then Prime Minister Dr. Lotay Tshering, held at ThePema by Realm, on 18th June, 2022, I once again reiterated that the hotel industry would be the most impacted, should the Parliament go ahead and pass the tabled/proposed Tourism Levy Bill of Bhutan 2022.

The government took the stand that going into hotel business was purely a business decision that was outside the purview of the RGoB. I countered that while that would be true, the decision by the hoteliers would have been influenced solely by relevant policies in place, and that when those policies were altered, the government that did it has to bear onus for the ensuing crisis.

In our tireless effort to dissuade the government and the Parliament from enacting a grossly misconceived and poorly directed tourism policy that was foretold to be ruinous for the country, on 23rd June, 2022, some select members of the BSTS met the Members of the National Assembly’s Economic & Finance Committee. During the meeting, I minced no words in declaring:

“I am willing to give you in writing that the Government, the Tourism Council of Bhutan and the Department of Immigration were, not one of them, ready to implement the Tourism Levy Bill of Bhutan 2022.”

Even as the catastrophic Tourism Levy Bill of Bhutan 2022 was at the verge of being passed into law by the Parliament, Bhutan’s one and only Sustainable Tourism Specialist - Dr. Karma Tshering (PhD) - went on record, and wrote the following in the Kuensel issue of June 22, 2022:

“First and foremost, before any change or systemic overhaul is contemplated, it is critical to understand if a change is really necessary; the pertinent question to ask is: is something going wrong? Particularly when one is dealing with an industry that accounts for the highest foreign exchange inflow, and accrual of multifarious benefits that encompass the entire strata of the Bhutanese society, the government needs to exercise extreme caution – before it embarks on an exercise that could very well imperil a system that is perceived to be working. We need some serious thinking on the matter – what exactly is it that we are trying to fix?"

"Are we in a tourism crisis or are we creating one?”

So, are we finally in agreement that a crisis has indeed been created where none had existed? If yes, are we now finally going to Reboot, Reset and Restore?