Bhutan cuts daily tourist fee by half to lure more visitors in struggle to recover from Covid
- The kingdom raised the fee to US$200 a visitor per night from US$65 when Covid restrictions ended last year, the new US$100 rate starts next month
- Bhutan is wary of the impact of mass tourism and bans mountain climbing to preserve its peaks, so the Sustainable Development Fee limits visitor numbers
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is to halve the US$200 daily fee it charges tourists in an effort to boost a sector still struggling to recover a year after the end of Covid-19 restrictions.
Bhutan raised its “Sustainable Development Fee” to US$200 per visitor per night, from US$65, when it ended two years of Covid restrictions in September last year saying the money would go to off-set the carbon generated by visitors.
The new rate of US$100 per night would come into effect from September and last for four years, the government said.
“This is in view of the important role of the tourism sector in generating employment, earning foreign exchange … and in boosting overall economic growth,” it said.
Isolated for generations, Bhutan opened to tourists in 1974 when it received 300 visitors. The number soared to 315,600 in 2019, up 15.1 per cent from a year earlier, official data showed.
Bhutan has always been wary of the impact of mass tourism and it bans mountain climbing to preserve the sanctity of its peaks. The tourist fee has limited arrivals to bigger spenders who make up a fraction of the numbers that visit nearby Nepal.
