Bhutan

Visiting Bhutan

The only way to visit Bhutan as a tourist is by paying for an organized tour purchased through an authorised travel agency. Upon payment, the official tour operator will take care of your visa and will make all arrangements which include lodging, food, tour guide, transport, porters, shows and whatever else is available or needed. If you require special arrangements such as five star hotel accommodation or a single room lodging, it can all be taken care of, but will be more expensive. Regular Bhutan tours which will take you through most popular tourist sites (will likely incude visits to Paro, including the Tiger’s Nest Monastery, Punakha, Thimphu, Jakar and Wangdue) will cost you $200 per day plus airfare and $20 for visa. This makes Bhutan a truly expensive destination that budget travellers and backpackers may not be able to afford, but it also makes Bhutan organized and gives you room to enjoy the sights unhindered by crowds of irresponsible tourists.

Unlike with most tourist destinations, the daily tariff for visit to Bhutan is set by the Bhutanese Department of Tourism and is fixed – non negotiable. That means that you either pay what they ask for per day or you don’t get to visit Bhutan. Drukair is the only airline with services to Bhutan and they will not board any foreigner (other than citizens of India or Bangladesh) without valid visa issued by the Bhutanese Department of Tourism, which is issued upon payment of all proceeds as per current daily tariffs.

View of Mount Everest from a Drukair Plane Leaving Bhutan, Photo: shrimpo1967, Flickr

High Quality Tourism in Bhutan

By restricting access to their country, the government of Bhutan does an amazing job preserving and protecting both their unspoiled environment as well as unique culture, while at the same time both remain promoted on a worldwide scale and bring foreign revenue. This a near perfect tourism model: the country is open to international tourism, but government controlled pricing for tour packages makes the country unreachable for an average tourist. As a result, pristine nature remains untrampled by boots of countless tourists, crime remains well under control, environment remains perfectly sustainable, society remains perfectly harmonious and original culture remains unspoiled.