A tourism working group meeting between the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) was held in the capital yesterday. The meeting was to review a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two agencies in 2017 towards promoting tourism between Bhutan and Thailand.
At the meeting, the Thai delegates shared that expensive airfares, limited frequency of flights between Bhutan and Thailand during peak seasons and difficulty in processing VISA are some of the problems that Thai people visiting Bhutan face.
According to the Bhutan Tourism Monitor, Thai tourists visiting Bhutan saw healthy growth for about a decade. But from 2016, the number started declining. Last year, close to 3,900 tourists visited the country. On the other hand, over 25,000 Bhutanese visited Thailand as tourists in the same year.
“Thai tourists love travelling. So, in the case of Bhutan, I think Thai people are very interested in coming to Bhutan but maybe because they don’t get much information on Bhutan. I think both countries have one thing in common, we are Buddhist. Thai tourists love to go to the temple, so that can be one of the attractions that Bhutanese can promote,” Sriporn Bhekanandana, the Executive Director of TAT, said.
Besides the inconveniences, the meeting also saw discussions on other initiatives to be taken up and is within the agreement. The two parties talked on joint marketing, ways to select the best tourism products and promoting Community Based Tourism. Exchange programs for celebrities and media personnel of the two countries were also proposed.
“We are happy to help and support both in job training and we might send tourism experts from the Tourism Authority of Thailand to share our experience in marketing for Bhutanese tourism personnel and also hotels as well,” Sriporn Bhekanandana said.
Meanwhile, as part of the agreement, a group of Bhutanese, including TCB officials, travel agents and media personnel, also visited Thailand last year. The trip was to study Community Based Tourism and promote tourism between Bhutan and Thailand.
Pema Tshewang
