Trekking’s picking up steam

Trekking’s picking up steam t

A group of trekking tourists on the Laya-Gasa trek last month

… with travellers from closer to home, the so-called regional tourists

Tourism: A growing number of regional tourists are venturing into trekking activities, with many high-end regional tourists wanting to visit Bhutan for trekking only, say tour operators.

Visitors from India, Bangladesh and Maldives are referred to as regional tourists.  They are exempt from the minimum daily tariff and do not require visas.  Regional tourists, who come in by air, are considered high-end, owing to their contribution to tourism through airline earnings.

A local tour operator, Fly to Bhutan, catered to about three Indian trekking groups, comprising 16 people, so far, this year. “We also had the first group for the Laya-Gasa trek,” said the sales and operations manager, Dorje. “Indians are more interested in short duration treks, which range from four to five days.”

There are no separate records maintained for regional trekking or cultural tourists.  Tour operators, catering to Indian tourists, said there could be about 100 trekking tourists from India this year.

Trekking tourists are charged about Nu 10,000 per night, per head, which is inclusive of food and lodge. “We provide the same services, just as we cater to international trekking tourists,” he said. “We target high-end tourists, as they can afford to pay.”

“It also helps to have good counterpart agents in India,” added Dorje

Tourism council of Bhutan’s (TCB) Damcho Rinzin said regional tourists comprise family visitors, who mostly engage in cultural tourism activities. There is an increasing young, active and outdoor experience-seekers interested to visit Bhutan. “So it’s important that we promote our nature related adventure tourism products to these kinds of adventure seekers,” he said.

Despite getting queries on trekking based activities from a lot of high-end regional tourists, tour operators said logistics was an issue, as regional tourists didn’t route through a tour operator.

Last year, almost two-thirds of the total regional tourists came on their own, while the rest were part of packaged tours through tour operators, according to TCB.  Tour operators in India also offer packaged tours, partnering with local hotels in Bhutan.

Keys to Bhutan, destination management company for Make My Trip, India, has been targeting the Indian market for more than eight years, promoting both trekking and outdoor activities. “Somehow we’ve failed as it didn’t pick up as expected,” said general manager, Raju Rai.

Raju Rai said it was challenging to promote treks, which required trekking permits from various agencies. “Due to such formalities, we gave up after a few groups,” he said. “But now I’m sure there’s a proper channel to obtain permits for regional tourists, which could have eased things.”

TCB’s Damcho Rinzin said managing regional tourists has been a challenge because of their flexibility in arranging their trips, on their own. “However, we encourage and highlight the benefits of using the services of professional Bhutanese tour operators,” he said. “We’re also looking at improving and initiating systems to make it easier for regional tourists to route their travel through a local tour operator.”

Last year, 105, 407 tourists visited the country, of which 50,722 were regional visitors from the neighbouring countries of India and Bangladesh.

As is the trend, last year, a majority of the regional tourists comprised visitors from India, said tourism officials.  About 86 percent of the visitors were from India, followed by about 12 percent from Bangladesh, and the rest from Maldives.

TCB official said there are huge numbers of regional tourists, who travel to other countries from the neighbouring countries. “If we can tap the high-end segment, then it’ll highly benefit our tourism industry,” said Damcho Rinzin. “Regional tourists, especially from India, travel in summer months, when it’s low tourist season in Bhutan.”

As of October this year, 95,931 visited the country, of which 43,398 were international tourists and 52,533 were regional tourists.

Source: Kuensel

By Kinga Dema

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Tourist numbers register increases

Tourist numbers register increases 

Tourism: About 20,160 regional and international or dollar paying tourists visited the country last month.

This was an increase of 27.98 percent from those who visited the country in October last year.  Tourism council of Bhutan (TCB) recorded 15,752 regional and international tourists last year.

The month is also considered as the time of the year when tour operators, hoteliers, guides, and handicraft shops make more money.  Drukair also deploys additional flights to accommodate the increase in passengers.

The total tourist arrivals until last month was 95,931, records maintained by TCB stated. “About 43,398 were international and 52,533 regional tourists,” an official from TCB said.

This was also an increase of 7.6 percent from same period last year. “Until October last year, 89,139 tourists visited the country,” the official said.

Regional tourists are those from India, Bangladesh, and Maldives.  They do not pay the minimum daily tariff of USD 250 and USD 200 during the peak and lean seasons, and do not require visas.  Most of the regional tourists are from India.

“Looking at the trend so far, we’re positive that we’ll be able to meet our 2013 target,” said a tourism council official.  By the end of the 11th five-year plan, TCB intends to meet the goal of 200,000 tourist, officials said.

The president of association of Bhutanese tour operators, Karma Lotey, said the tourism industry should promote more high-end tourists than sheer numbers. “This will help in the preservation of our culture and tradition and promotion of GNH values,” he said. “As a small nation, we need to tread carefully for the sake of the sustainability of tourism business in the future.”

Source: Kuensel

By Kinga Dema

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