Americans back on top in tourist arrivals

Americans back on top in tourist arrivalset

After falling second for the first time in 2012 to the Japanese, the Americans were once again #1

Tourism: American tourists dominated international arrivals last year, surpassing Japanese tourists who topped arrivals in 2012 .

Of the 52,798 international tourists, who visited the country last year, the highest were Americans, with about 6,927 visitors, a tentative arrival list by nationality show.

After the US, the other top source markets were China with about 4,764 tourists, Japan with about 4,015 and about 3,494 Thai tourists.

Americans continued to dominate international tourist arrivals until 2011.  However, in 2012, for the first time, it was Japanese tourists that topped the market.

Tourist arrivals by nationality

Japanese tourists surpassing American tourists in 2012 was mainly attributed to Their Majesties’ visit to Japan in 2011, which generated “enormous” publicity, followed by Tourism Council of Bhutan’s (TCB) follow-up promotions in Japan.

Also, for the first time in four years, Chinese tourists surpassed Japanese tourists, emerging as the second top source market last year.

The country usually saw the highest arrivals from the US followed by Japan.  In 2010, Germany saw an increase of about 42 percent in arrivals, overtaking the UK.

“During the same year, China represented a promising new market and was rated among the top five major markets for the first time with an increase of about 30 percent over 2009,” the tourism monitor stated.

In 2011, China emerged as the third top source markets with 2,896 visitors, records with Tourism Council  show.  During the same year, Thailand stood fifth among the top source markets with 2,235 visitors.

While arrival figures from top source markets were important, the tourism monitor stated that measuring source markets based on duration of stay was a valuable indicator. “Yield and revenue are linked to the duration of stay,” the monitor stated.

Despite the increase in arrivals from neighbouring Asian countries, Tourism Council  records indicated that tourists from US always visited for a longer period, contributing to higher revenue, followed by countries like the UK and Germany.

After dominating the top source market for a long time, the US dropped to the second in 2012, followed by Chinese, Thai and British tourists.  That year, the country recorded 105,407 international and regional tourists.

“A record increase in the top Asian markets like Japan, China, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia propelled the Asia/Pacific region to be the dominating market region in the world,” the 2012 tourism monitor stated.

The increase in arrivals from neighbouring Asian countries, tour operators, said was an advantage for tourism industry, considering the effort towards promoting the country as a all year-round tourist destination.

A majority of Asians, tour operators said, travelled during summer months to escape the heat. “So that’s when we have to package tours and market accordingly to attract Asian tourists and so far, our efforts have paid off,” a tour operator said.

Last year, 116,224 international and regional tourists visited the country, an increase by about 10 percent or 10,810 tourists from the previous year.

Of the total arrivals, 44,267 were international or Dollar paying tourists, 8,531 under international business, while the rest 63,426 were regional tourists.

Source: Kuensel

By Kinga Dema

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Gross National Happiness

Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.

Gross National Happiness: Development Philosophy of Bhutan

Economists the world over has been arguing that the key to happiness is obtaining and enjoying material development. However, Bhutan tries to argue the case differently by advocating that amassing material growth does not necessarily lead to happiness. Defying this notion, Bhutan is now trying to measure progress is not by the popular idea of Gross Domestic Product but by through Gross National happiness.

His Majesty the third Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck expressed his view on the goals of development as making “the people prosperous and happy.” With this strong view in mind, the importance of “prosperity and happiness,” was highlighted in the King’s address on the occasion of Bhutan’s admission to the United Nations in 1971. This vision was further elaborated by the fourth Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck who declared in the first years of his reign that “our country’s policy is to consolidate our sovereignty to achieve economic self-reliance, prosperity and happiness for our country and people.”

While the emphasis is placed on both, prosperity and happiness, the latter is considered of more significance. The fourth Druk Gyalpo emphasized that for Bhutan “Gross National Happiness,” is more important than “Gross National Product.” Thus, Gross National Happiness is now being fleshed out by a wide range of professionals, scholars and agencies across the world.

Concerned about the problems afflicting countries that focused only on economic growth, Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck decided to make the nation’s priority not it’s Gross Domestic Product but Gross National Happiness. For this he suggested that the progress of the nation be measured by “Gross National Happiness.” He said that the rich are not always happy while the happy generally considered themselves rich. While conventional development models stressed on economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of Gross National Happiness claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other.

The four main pillars of Gross National Happiness are:

1. Equitable and equal socio-economic development,


2. Preservation and promotion of cultural and spiritual heritage,

3. Conservation of environment and,


4. Good governance which are interwoven, complementary, and consistent.

They embody national and local values, aesthetics, and spiritual traditions. As a result, we can see that the concept of Gross National Happiness is now being taken up by various other countries, following footsteps of Bhutan. This has led them to define prosperity in more enhanced terms and to actually measure people’s well being rather than measuring what they actually consume. Crucial to a better understanding of Gross National Happiness, is one its wider reach and awareness amongst other countries, two, and the various indices that has now been formulated to assess even material gains and lastly, the growing need to synthesis the moral with the cultural values as the core of any economic policy.

Gross National Happiness as a development paradigm has now made possible for Bhutan to take its developmental policies into the remote corners and include the far flung villagers into the development aspects by meeting their needs and accentuating the need to protect and preserve our rich environment and forest cover. The success of Gross National Happiness can be found in many areas besides developmental aspects. The policy of low volume but high value tourism has indeed assisted not only in the high revenue generation but in fact facilitated the promotion and preservation of our cultural values.

Further, the concept of Gross National Happiness has greatly enabled her in the pursuit of development, at the same time promoting happiness as the core philosophy of life. For the government, it has facilitated the drive towards self sufficiency and self reliance, the ultimate reduction in the gap between the rich and the poor and ensuring good governance and empowerment of her people.

Following the international seminar on Operationalizing Gross National Happiness held in Bhutan in February 2004, the participants felt it useful to establish a Gross International Happiness Network, indicating the influence of Gross National Happiness beyond the Bhutanese Borders.

The Network attempts to find best examples of sustainable development that incorporates values reflecting general well being of the people. The GIH Network is a collaboration of the following institutions:

1.  Center for Bhutan Studies, Bhutan

2.  Spirit in Business, USA and the Netherlands

3. Social Venture Network Asia, Thailand

4.  ICONS, Redefining Progress & Implementing New Indicators on Sustainable Development, Brazil

5.  Inner Asia Center for Sustainable Development, the Netherlands

6.  The New Economics Foundation, UK

7.  Genuine Progress Indicators / GPI Atlantic, Canada

8.  Corptools/Values Center, USA

9.  International Society for Ecology and Culture, UK

source: Tourism Council of Bhutan 

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