Tourism Policy of the Kingdom of Bhutan.

This Tourism Policy of the Kingdom of Bhutan sets the agenda and direction for the development of tourism sector. The overall objective of this National Tourism Policy is to promote high value, low volume tourism to foster sustainable, competitive and inclusive growth to enhance the industry’s contribution to nation building.
The guiding principles which underpin Bhutan’s vision for sustainable tourism destination include: i. Develop and promote forms of tourism that is consistent with national development philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH); ii. Tourism shall be developed and promoted in a manner that respects the country’s natural and cultural resources, its people and core values.; iii. Where rural community engagements in tourism are concerned, tourism shall be developed and promoted as a supplementary income source and not as a substitute for their primary livelihood; iv. Tourism shall be developed to promote regional and seasonal spread with equitable growth and benefit sharing.
The Royal Government shall initiate identification of tourism zones across the country to conserve, preserve / protect and maintain places of scenic beauty, villages, towns and tourist sites and allocation of land in areas of tourism potentials. The Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) shall enhance and promote ecotourism development to promote conservation travel through investment facilitation, enabling frameworks, capacities, benefit sharing mechanisms etc. The Royal Government shall also introduce targeted incentives to promote visitation, investments and tourism businesses. The TCB shall encourage private sector investment in development of tourism infrastructure, products and services, and facilitate development of eco-friendly tourism infrastructure, amenities and support services including accessibility for the differently-abled. In addition, the TCB shall facilitate visitor management programs in areas that are experiencing visitor pressures and ecologically sensitive areas.
Since tourism is a labour intensive sector that creates many jobs at all levels. The TCB shall conduct skills assessment and provision of training to local personnel at all levels.