Tourist guides in the country will have to go through a mandatory drug test starting December this year. This, according to the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB), is to maintain a drug-free tourism sector and support the nation’s effort to curb drug abuse.
As per the Code of Conduct for tourist guides in the Tourism Rules and Regulation 2017, ‘A guide shall, at no given time, be under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, cigarettes or any other banned substances.’
The reason why we are selecting tourist guides is that they are the ambassador of the tourism industry, they are the face of the tourism sector and its very important that they are free of drugs and that they provide a high standard of services to our tourists,” said Karma Tenzin, the Tourism Officer for Quality Assurance Division, under the TCB.
Two types of drug tests, mandatory and random, will be conducted.
“Currently the license renewal of a guide is carried out from December to February annually. So during that time, we will conduct mandatory drug testing but there are chances that during other months, substances can be abused. So, in order to curb that, we are going to do random drug testing so that guides are careful and that they do not actually abuse substances during other months,” he added.
The TCB in collaboration with the Bhutan Narcotics Control Authority (BNCA) will be conducting the drug tests.
According to the BNCA, a person undergoing the test will be required to provide his or her urine sample. The test will detect 10 different types of drugs and the results will be shown within three to five minutes after the test.
Today, there are more than 4000 guides in the country.
Pema Seldon Tshering
