T
he tourism council is eyeing the large and lucrative business of organising meetings and conferences as part of its efforts to promote and diversify the tourism industry.
The industry at the moment is dominated by cultural tourism and trekking. It is by nature seasonal with most of the tourists visiting Bhutan either in Spring or in Autumn coinciding with the Paro and Thimphu Tshechu festivals.
Known as MICE or meeting, incentive, convention, and event tourism, it will allow international companies to come to Bhutan and conduct meetings, seminars, exhibitions, and workshops.
Damchoe Rinzin, an official from the tourism council, said “the tourism industry is growing. There is lot of infrastructure coming up, for example hotels and these hotels, some of them don’t have good occupancy.”
The tourism council is targeting countries like India, Bangladesh and Thailand for MICE tourism initially.
As the infrastructure grows, the tourism council will target other countries.
Tourism officials said the biggest obstacle in promoting MICE tourism is the lack of Infrastructure for conducting meetings and organising exhibitions.
