The challenge
Bhutan wanted tourism income without the damage of mass tourism.
The case
Bhutan has long charged visitors a daily fee to keep tourism small-scale and fund public services. When it ended two years of Covid restrictions in September 2022, it raised its Sustainable Development Fee from $65 to $200 per visitor per night. A year later tourism was still struggling to recover. More than 56,000 tourists had visited since January 2023, but about 42,000 of them were Indians, who pay a much lower fee, compared with 315,600 visitors in 2019. In 2023 the government halved the fee to $100 per night for four years, starting that September, to boost arrivals.
Why the results were mixed
A visitor fee can protect a destination and fund services, but there is a limit. Set too high, it hurt the people who depend on tourism for a living.
Sources
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