In a Dilemma


Written by Irsa Khan • Region • November 2011

Bhutan, the Land of Gross National Happiness, is in a bind over whether to promote tourism and invite a negative impact on its pristine ecological environment or to let the opportunity go by. Bhutan, a heaven on earth for tourists, has become one of the most expensive holiday destinations in the world and is predicted to be even more costly in 2012.

This pristine Himalayan kingdom of snow-capped peaks and sacred valleys pursues a policy of “high-end, low-impact tourism,” in a deliberate attempt to keep its environment intact from carbon footprint.Therefore, foreign tourists required to book through licensed tour operators, a minimum high-season price of 200 dollars per day per person for an all-inclusive package including accommodation, food and transport is not surprising at all.

The Tourism Council of Bhutan plans to raise the high-season daily fee to $250 per day per person in the coming year and is not concerned with the high new cost. Contemplating the idea of preserving Bhutan for future generations, the council thinks it might not make any economic sense now to be high end, but in the long run it will keep the kingdom from wantonly going along the economic development path without considering the social impact and the environment.

Nevertheless, next year the council hopes to boost visitor numbers by more than 50 per cent to 100,000 by offering new holiday packages and improving flight links to cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

So what is it that keeps this small land perched high in the Himalayas tourists’ dreamland?

There is a lot of mysticism that surrounds Bhutan. It’s known as the last Shangri-La, in context to the Himalayan paradise described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton. The Land of the Thunder Dragon, as it is also sometimes known, had no roads or currency until the 1960s and allowed television only in 1999 in a bid to shield itself from foreign influences.

This remote and reclusive country, never colonized despite its position between India and China, famously follows an economic development doctrine known as the Gross National Happiness, which takes into account the mental well-being of its nearly 700,000 citizens instead of simply measuring financial gain.

Moreover, Bhutan’s decision to keep out the masses makes it an appealing destination for anyone wanting to escape the chaos of city life. The kingdom caters to wealthy travelers and Hollywood celebrities who stay at a number of luxury hotels and enjoy high-end services. This gives it a ‘snob value’ as not many people have been to the country and most can only dream of visiting.

Meanwhile, Bhutan is set to host the 3rd PATA Annual Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference in Paro valley in February 2012. The official theme for the event will be ‘High Value Tourism – Low Impact Footprints’ whereas the event will be the first of its kind in the Kingdom of Bhutan.

In its bid to promote tourism in the country, Bhutan has also introduced a second carrier – Tashi Air, besides Bhutan’s national carrier Drukair to its aviation sector and also plans to build new airports in the country. In a major development, Drukair and Tashi Air have recently received authorization from Singapore’s Department of Civil Aviation to operate services to Singapore. This bilateral air services agreement is expected to provide a major tourism boost for Bhutan providing flights to and from Singapore via Kolkata and Dhaka.

However, more recently the target of 100,000 visitors next year is causing unease for some in Bhutan who fear the impact of a sudden influx. Many fear that the footprint increase will have adverse affects on the otherwise untouched environment in the country, therefore making it more prone to climate change.

In August this year, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley issued a dire warning about the impact of Himalayan climate change, saying it could wreck the tiny kingdom’s ambitious plans to be a world leader in hydropower. “The glaciers are retreating very rapidly, some are even disappearing. The flow of water in our river system is fluctuating in ways that are very worrying,” the Premier noted.

Bhutan, home to 700,000 people, is already a carbon-neutral electricity producer, with almost all of its power generated at plants that capture energy from the cascading streams. The impact therefore on hydrology is very severe. This shift also threatens water and energy supplies to neighboring India.

The shift may jeopardize Bhutan’s ambitious hydroelectric power plans to raise capacity seven-fold from a current peak of about 1,500 megawatts (MW) from four plants, to 10,000 MW by adding another 10 projects by 2020. By selling electricity to energy-starved India, the aid-dependent country had hoped to become economically self-sufficient by 2018.

But PM Thinley said the government will now have to reconsider the assumption that rivers would be a boundless source of energy and income. Bhutan seems to be in a dilemma at present. It will be a challenge for the country to reach 100, 000 without any of the accompanying negative impacts.