If the grapevine and the rumormongers are to be believed, two much-awaited events are going to happen:
The Tourism Council Meeting
The word is out that the Council Members of the Tourism Council of Bhutan is scheduled to hold its Council Meeting this evening - between 3 to 5 PM. The stakeholders of the country’s most impactful industry have been reduced to being Alices in Wonderland – clueless, rudderless and directionless. Hopefully, today’s Council Meeting – which had remained suspended for the past one year and three months!!! - will bring clarity and direction to where tourism in this country is headed.
The last Council Meeting was held sometime in March of 2021.
The slumbering Atsara likely to be resurrected soon
Discussion on Tourism Reforms
Whether true or false, it is rumored that the matter relating to tourism reforms would be tabled in the National Assembly for discussion – on 20th June, 2022. Times are hard - planting falsehood and misinformation in the social media has come into vogue in recent times. But if it is true – it is about time!! Reforms are good - and needed. Reforms bring about change and improvement - it brings greater clarity to the aims and aspirations of the industry.
And Bhutan’s tourism policy is in need of change – at a structural level, if it is to continue to provide the largest number of employment and deliver benefit to the largest number of the Bhutanese population.