Discuss about the Connecting tourism development with small island destinations and with the well-being of the island residents?
In official terms, Bhutan is called the Kingdom of Bhutan. The country is landlocked in the southern part of Asia. It has a border with China (northern part) and another with the country India in the south, west and east directions. It is divided from Nepal by Sikkim to the west and it is divided from Bangladesh by West Bengal and Assam (Indian states) to farther south. Thimphu is the largest city as well as the capital of Bhutan. Bhutan has a total population of 7, 54, 000 people and a total land area of 38,394 km2. It has a very rich biodiversity and the population of the country is mainly rural. It is considered one of the fastest-growing developing nations globally and follows Buddhist culture strongly. The second-largest religion followed in Bhutan is Hinduism. The country became a two-party parliamentary democracy in the year 2008. Television emerged in 1999 and the country was isolated due to the fear of outside interferences destabilizing its monarchy and culture (Weaver 2014). It is rated one of the happiest countries in Asia and is heavily influenced by Indian and British cultures. The major trading partner of the country is India. This particular report deals with the tourism policies of Bhutan and the issues faced by the tourism industry in the said country. It also brings to the forefront the achievements of tourism policies and has proper recommendations for the betterment of the tourism industry (Croes 2016).
There are various stakeholders in the tourism industry. Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO) emerged in 2000 and presently it is one of the acknowledged tour operators in the country. It is the official and mutual opinion of all the operators n Bhutan, who include its basic membership. It is regarded as an institution protecting and representing the gathered concerns of the industry of tourism all over the said country. After few years of its emergence, ABTO has been both effective and responsive in characterizing concerns (shared) and promoting the interests of tour operators. ABTO has also been able to serve various changes for the demands of the said industry and the operators (tour) with the groundwork of the Tourism Council of Bhutan along with its members. It has ensured increased operational and administrative convenience and faster processing of the required formalities (Farmaki et al. 2015).
Hotel Association of Bhutan (HAB) is a federation of hotels from all over the country. It is an apolitical, non-profit organization of mutual benefit. Its sole mission is to represent the members’ interest and promote their professional and economic growth while uplifting the standards of hotels. It also believes in contributing towards the development (sustainable) of Bhutan tourism. It promotes cooperation among the hotels and other stakeholders to promote and establish an ethical code. The objectives of HAB are to foster, develop, represent, improve and encourage the industry of tourism in Bhutan (Hoy et al. 2015).
The Guide Association of Bhutan (GAB) is an apolitical, non-profit organization of mutual benefit to professionalize and empower tour guides along with their profession. It aspires to establish itself as the most important body of Bhutan to protect, promote, represent, educate and inform professional guides of Bhutan. It develops its capacity to become a key and important player to enhance and professionalize the quality of guides in the country of Bhutan. GAB was founded in the year 2009 on 27 February. In the year 2010, it became one of the first organizations to be registered (officially) with the newly established Civil Society Organization Authority of Bhutan (Hughes, Weaver and Pforr 2015).
The tourism sector of the country is regarded as the most dashing and exclusive destinations for travel in the world. It (tourism) is a dynamic business with a very high capability and the potential for development and growth. The Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) has the vision to promote the country as an exclusionary destination for travel based on the values of Gross National Happiness (GNH). It believes in promoting low impact and high-value tourism. It has created an enabling environment for a colorful industry of tourism. It has taken measures to promote the country as a year-round destination and increase the spread of tourism in the regional sectors (Kubiszewski et al. 2013).
The Royal Government of Bhutan possesses ten ministries, who work together to bring the goal of Gross National Happiness (GNH) much closer to real life (Ning 2014). The ministries are Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Ministry of Works and Human Settlement (MOWHS), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Ministry of Labor and Human Resources (MOLHR), Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Information and Communications (MOIC), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs (MOHCA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and Ministry of Health (MOH).
SNV Nepal describes the main tourist attraction in Humla. It has defined a four-phase process of ten steps for working collectively with the local communities on the development of tourism. The first three steps relate to the Identification phase of potential markers, areas, villages, stakeholders, etc. It began with the pre-DPP surveys that took place in the year 1997. It started in the year October 1999 and was completed in the year 2000. Step four (the Feasibility Studies0 was completed in the year 2000 and presently the third phase of village level, business planning and district level is under process (Ray and Das 2015).
The Bhutan tourism industry has been founded on sustainability principle and it means that tourism should be ecologically and environmentally friendly, culturally and socially acceptable as well as economically reasonable. The Royal Government of Bhutan has recognized that it is a phenomenon (worldwide) and it is a substantial means to achieve development in the socio-economic sector of Bhutan, which is a country that is still developing. It identifies that tourism affords the liberty to travel and have the ability to help to publicize understanding among individuals to build friendship links based on respect and appreciation for different lifestyles and cultures. The Royal Government has adopted an approach to development and growth of the tourism industry in Bhutan (Teoh 2014). The Government has maintained the number of tourists’ level to reduce different problems. The tourism policy of Bhutan has maintained consistency in promoting the high value and low impact and it further helped the country to achieve a rich and living culture. The country is a representation of a magical destination for people seeking a journey back to time. The Royal Government has also taken measures to promote a positive process in the conservation of the environment, promotion of cultural heritage and safeguarding the sovereign status of the nation for contributing significantly to Gross National Happiness (GNH). The tourism policy aims at protecting and respecting the heritage and culture of Bhutan and preserves its resources sustainably (Ray 2015).
There are certain issues that affected the tourism of Bhutan in a negative way. Globalization is a worldwide phenomenon and it has reached and affected all of the cultures and societies in every continent. Bhutan is a country with a long history of traditional society and it is often characterized by primitive production mode, which enters recently into the modern global economy. One of the most visible manifestations of globalization is tourism and it has become one of the important drivers of economic development in any country. Bhutan’s ‘high value, low impact’ policy has become successful by recognizing the industry of tourism as a niche of market (Timothy 2015). The tourism industry of Bhutan has seen a considerable growth over the last few years due to impact of globalization. The policy has helped the country to invite more tourists and generate high revenue. It has attracted foreign tourists and this helped the country to gain more revenues, thereby, developing the economy of Bhutan. It helped in reducing the unemployment rate in the country and fostered the growth of employment within the nation. However, globalization has a negative impact as well. It damages the traditional culture of the country. Creating and standardizing a single Bhutanese national culture proved disastrous for the cultural diversity in the regional areas of the country. Most of the group discussions evolved from the traditional dress in the country. The wearing of the traditional dress was a matter of pride for the residents of Bhutan. It preserved a part of cultural heritage. The arguments against wearing the national dress of the nation were about modernity and convenience. Cultural commercialization hurt the sentiments of the people of Bhutan (Samdup, Udo and van der Zijpp 2014).
Another factor that affected the tourism industry is soil erosion or degradation. It is becoming a serious problem in the nation, which is caused by both human activities and natural processes. The human activities include agricultural practices (unsustainable), infrastructure development, forest fire, mining, urbanization, etc. It is the main cause of loss of agricultural land and decline of agricultural productivity in the nation. The problem is increasing daily with the increase in population and change in climate (Schroeder 2015).
The emissions of pollutants from the vehicles posed a major threat to the tourism industry in Bhutan. The pollutants increased the pollution level of the country and that caused in the change of climate in the country. This caused a severe problem in the nation and had a negative impact on the tourism industry of Bhutan. Climate changes result in flood and overflowing and it affects the said industry in a negative way (Schroeder and Schroeder 2014).
Urbanization brought about social, cultural and economic transformation in Bhutan. It was impossible to distribute the returns on investment due to rugged terrain and lack of communication and roads. Since the majority of the population lived in the rural regions, it became impossible for them to enjoy the fruits of development at the initial stage. The urbanization process became very expensive due to rugged terrain. It also became difficult for the people living in the rural areas to expand the market transaction and therefore, it created a gap between the incomes and amenities between urban and rural areas. Industrial development had a slow pace because of a weak entrepreneurial orientation, small domestic market and lack of resource inventory, underdeveloped infrastructure and higher transport costs. Urbanization and industrialization go hand in hand in the process of development. However, these two processes do still not affect the rural areas of Bhutan. They are still backward and lacks infrastructural development and growth in economy. Both these factors affected the tourism industry of Bhutan in a negative way (Sherpa 2013).
Water pollution is another major cause of the mismanagement of tourism industry in Bhutan. Globalization, urbanization and industrialization have caused severe climate changes in the country. This affects Bhutan’s biodiversity and population. Due to water pollution, there is a scarcity of supply in water in the households of Bhutan. Waste and water management remained underdeveloped in smaller settlements. Shortage of water is affecting the whole nation and it has a direct impact on the tourism industry in Bhutan. The scarcity of water affects the hotel and tourism industries since it annoys the tourists. This adds to the negative publicity of the country (Weaver 2012).
The Royal Government also has a fear of crime and prostitution due to the emergence of globalization and industrialization in the country. They fear of loss of their cultural heritage since globalization has posed a major threat to the traditional culture of the country. There is a change in the mentality of the people, which is affecting the cultural heritage of the country. These issues have an indirect impact on the tourism industry of Bhutan (Snyman 2016).
The tourism policy of Bhutan has achieved many things in the recent years. Due to urbanization and industrialization, there has been a considerable growth in the urban areas of Bhutan. Opportunities for employment have increased and Bhutan is considered as one of the happiest countries of Asia. It helped the economy to generate more income and improved the culture of the country. The tourism policy has helped in the economic development of the country. It focused on sustainable management of resources and it attracted many tourists. The policies helped the country to build new infrastructures and it helped the tourist organization to gain benefit (Teoh 2015). The country has witnessed arrivals of 105,402 tourists in the year 2012 with total revenue of $227 million. It increased the economy of the country due to high returns on investment. The Government’s policy of high value and low impact proved beneficial for the tourism industry. It helped to preserve the natural resources and cultural diversity of the country. It has significantly contributed to the Gross National Happiness (GNH) of the country. The four pillars of GNH have been achieved due to the implication of the tourism policies. The four pillars are sustainable development, promotion and preservation of cultural values, the establishment of good governance and conservation of natural resources along with the environment. It helps in guiding the development and economic plans of the country. The tourism sector of Bhutan represents ten percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation. The policy has also provided employment to 28,982 people in the past one year. Due to the adoption of tourism policies, Bhutan has been named top five places to visit by New York Times (Suntikul and Dorji 2015).
At the end of the report, it can be concluded that both private and public sector are more focused on sustainability and responsible tourism in the current situation. The intervention of the Royal Government in the matters of the private sector has proved beneficial for the country to promote its tourism policy worldwide. Both the sectors have been contributing significantly to promote the growth and development of responsible tourism in the country. Tourism is an expanding business in Bhutan and it has seen a significant growth in the recent years. It has become one of the happiest countries of Asia. It has attracted many tourists due to its rich cultural diversity and heritage. The tourism industry will go on providing opportunities for employment and income to the people who need it the most. The Royal Government has taken various sustainable measures to protest the rights of the individuals and promote employment opportunities among the rural and the urban sectors of the country. The ‘high-value low impact’ policy has proved to be an effective policy in balancing the environment and economy and the Government is adopting various strategies to ensure equal opportunities to every individual of the country.
The report reveals the current state of the country, Bhutan. The hotel sector suffers from skilled labor and poor understanding of quality service. Therefore, improvements in the quality of the products are highly recommended. The country lacks excellent hotels and guesthouses. The country needs to build hotels with better infrastructure as many foreigners visit the country. The tax collected from the tourists should be used for preservation of sustainable and environment development of Bhutan tourism. The country should reduce the cost to increase the arrivals of tourism.
References
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Farmaki, A., Altinay, L., Botterill, D. and Hilke, S., 2015. Politics and sustainable tourism: The case of Cyprus. Tourism Management, 47, pp.178-190.
Hoy, A., Katel, O., Thapa, P., Dendup, N. and Matschullat, J., 2015. Climatic changes and their impact on socio-economic sectors in the Bhutan Himalayas: an implementation strategy. Regional Environmental Change, pp.1-15.
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