Department of Tourism (Bhutan)

The Department of Tourism (DoT) is the agency of the Royal Government of Bhutan responsible for the planning, promotion and regulation of the country's tourism sector. It operates under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment and is the successor to the former Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB), the autonomous body that previously administered tourism. The Department maintains the official destination website, bhutan.travel.^[1]

Bhutan's tourism is governed by a "high value, low volume" philosophy, and the Department's work centres on balancing the sector's economic contribution — employment, foreign-exchange earnings and spillover into ancillary industries — against the cultural and environmental pressures of visitor numbers.^[2]

History

For much of the modern tourism era, policy was overseen by the Tourism Council of Bhutan, an autonomous council. In the government and civil-service restructuring of the early 2020s the TCB's functions were folded into the new Department of Tourism within the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment, aligning tourism with the ministry that oversees trade and industry.^[1]

Functions

The Department sets tourism policy and standards, licenses and oversees tour operators and guides, markets Bhutan as a destination, and administers the Sustainable Development Fee (SDF), the per-night levy that is the financial cornerstone of the high-value model.^[1]

Sustainable Development Fee reform

In 2023 the government significantly revised the SDF to stimulate a post-pandemic recovery. From 1 September 2023 the fee was halved from USD 200 to USD 100 (~Nu 8,300) per adult per night, with the reduction set to run until 31 August 2027; children aged 6–12 received a 50 per cent discount, and a separate waiver was introduced for short visits to the southern border towns of Samtse, Phuentsholing, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkhar.^[3]

See also

• Tourism Policy of Bhutan

References

1. "Tourism in Bhutan." Wikipedia.
2. Department of Tourism, Royal Government of Bhutan (official site).
3. "Bhutan expands incentives for visitors, with daily Sustainable Development Fee reduced by 50% until 2027." The Nation, 2023.