NCB discusses on new tourism policy

The Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs of the National Council of Bhutan conducted a stakeholders meeting on the key issues on the draft tourism policy in Bhutan.

The director of the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) and Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO) made a presentation on the draft tourism policy to the committee members.

The Chairperson of the committee Pema Tenzin stated that the meeting was conducted to create avenue for discussion and brainstorming on the key issues regarding tourism policy. He said that the activity was undertaken as per the directive of the House during the 22nd plenary meeting which required the committee to conduct various stakeholder meetings and present its findings during the summer session of the National Council.

Besides discussions on the draft policy, the committee members also raised their concerns on the norms for policy approval, legitimacy of the policy, stumbling blocks, if any, for policy approval, pricing modality, Thai initiative, promotion of tourism in far flung destinations, construction of basic amenities and their management, royalty etc.

The ABTO presentation highlighted the genesis of privatisation of tourism, current tourism stakeholders and set up, information on the functions of ABTO, tariff policy, trends in the tourism sector and recommendations. The presentation was followed by Q&A session with the members submitting their concerns on change of policies from the high value, low volume to high value low impact tourism, issues of undercutting, monitoring of the quality of services, proficiency of guides, liberalisation of the tourism sector and maximisation of the price module.