Global meltdown seems to be the answer most common among those who responded to our question “Why”, but there could be other factors as well

JamtshoTHIMPHU

“All the king’s horses and all the king’ men,” as the old rhyme goes, “could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.” That’s more or less the story of tourism this year in the country, which has fallen drastically by 40 per cent over the same period last year.

Despite more than 400 pri­vate tour operators within the country, tourist arrivals, espe­cially for Thimphu tshechu 2009, has bombed.

The Thimphu and Paro tshechus are the perfect an­nual magnets for foreign tourists. Most of them across the globe are drawn to Bhu­tan especially during these fests, but the number of tour­ists visiting, at least for the Thimphu gala, has drastically decreased from 3,297 last year to 2,109 this year.

Most tourists visit Bhutan during this time of the year because of salubrious weather conditions, making it the best season for trekking across the country. Most of the reli­gious festivals, like Tshechu and Dromche, also take place this time of the year. Oriental spiritualism, especially Bud­dhism, is a craze now across the battle-riddled, materialis­tic and highly disturbed West­ern world!

But neither these 400 tour operators nor such a power­ful concoction of climatic and esoteric bliss could do much for Bhutan tourism this year.

Kinley Wangdi, media focal person for the Tourism Coun­cil of Bhutan said: “The num­ber of tourists visiting Bhutan to witness Thimphu tshe­chu has decreased by 1,188 persons this year because of global recession, as most tourists coming to Bhutan are from America, the worst hit country, followed by Europe, Japan and others, which are also largely affected.”

“The political situations in neighbouring coun­tries like India and Thai­land have also affected the number of tourists visiting Bhutan to witness Thim­phu tshechu, as our international airport is con­nected to them. And there was also a growing concern about the spread of H1N1 influenza in the country,” he added.

However, there is no ac­ceptable explanation for the drop in arrivals because of political problems in Thai­land, because air travel means you are far above, violence, literally; and India is largely at peace, at least in the border regions, so one still wonders what that statement means!

The Managing Director of Bhutan Majestic Travel, Namgay Dorji said: “The numbers visiting Bhutan for Thimphu tshechu have been badly affected by the global financial meltdown. We have been severely hit. Last year, we handled 50 tourists. This year, a measly 12 came through us.”

For their agency, the Paro tshechu attracts more tourists than any other festival within the country, he informed.

According to Jamyang, head of administration and finance departments of Yangphel Tours & Travels, although Thimphu tsechu attracts more tourists than other festivals in the country, they have only had 47 tour­ists this year, as against 95 in 2009.

Etho Metho Tours & Treks Ltd, however, has not ex­actly had a larger number of tourists, but at least its belt has not slipped below the waist… last year as well as this one they had the same number of tourists: 110.

According to an official of the agency: “Thimphu tshechu is the most popular festival for tourists visiting Bhutan through our agency, and this time of the year is the busiest for us, as after the tshechu the tourists trudge around the country for treks.”

Tsechu is an important event and celebrated throughout the kingdom. It is high festive time for the Bhutanese, and among the most colourful of all Bhutanese gatherings and celebrated in every Dzong (fortress) across the country.

According to reports, on the whole, last year saw a sudden surge in tourist ar­rivals in the country be­cause of the coronation of His Majesty the King, the Centenary Celebrations of Monarchy and also the tran­sition to the first democrati­cally elected government in the country.

“Bhutan is a beauti­ful country but entering Bhutan is very expensive for tourists. Economic cri­sis all over the world has been one factor behind the reduction in the number of tourists visiting the country,” said tour leader Hugo van Den Broeck from Belgium.

Bill, a US citizen now in the country, said: “Global fi­nancial crisis and terrorist at­tacks in other countries may be some of the reasons be­hind the drop in the rates of tourist arrivals.”

Luc M J of Belgium, who is here for 10 days, said: “Tourism traffic even in the western parts of the world has decrease by 10 to 15 per cent due to the financial crisis, but for Bhutan some of the other factors could also be lack of infrastructural fa­cilities like credit cards, roads and hotels.”

An attempt to assess cat­egories of tourists drop­ping out, that is how many Indians and how many westerners failed to come compared to last year did not bear fruit.

The TCB official said that the database is still being uploaded into comput­ers from the hard copies, and data would not be readily available.