With the tourism and the hospitality industry severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) has been working on several activities to restart the business in the new normal. One of them is to convert budget hotels into Blue Poppy hotels which is an improved and standardised version of budget hotels. Today, as an interim measure amid the pandemic, the council is providing a ‘Clean and Safe’ certification to hotels which is a prerequisite for them to open for business. The certificate will ensure that a hotel is safe, clean, and ready to serve customers in compliance with safety protocols.
Once a hotel achieves the standards set by the council, it will be certified ‘safe and clean’, to operate, which will be a prerequisite for a hotel to cater to tourists. Inching towards achieving this, more than 100 individuals, including proprietors and staff of hotels in Thimphu received training recently.
According to the Director-General of the council, Dorji Dradhul, they will categorize the budget hotels into Blue Poppy 1 and 2 and certify them based on certain dimensions.
“We are doing this because our investigations have found out that budget hotels in the country are operating below standards,” he said.
The DG also said that unlike in the past, the hotels will be regulated and monitored by the council after the conversion. They will also get any form of support from the council.
Meanwhile, the budget hotels will be assessed based on five dimensions that have already been developed by the TCB in collaborations with the Bhutan Standards Bureau, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Bhutan (HRAB), and other relevant agencies.
“They include the exterior and interior structure, such as lobby and reception area, guest rooms, kitchen, and restaurants. We will also look at the qualification of the human resources,” said Thinley Rinzin, the chief tourism officer.
According to the representatives of HRAB, the certification will immensely benefit their business to flourish.
“After the conversion of the budget hotels into blue poppy hotels, we would be allowed to cater to regional tourists. The certification will attract more tourists which will help sustain our business,” said Sigay Dorji, a member of the Board of Directors of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Bhutan.
Since the clean and safe certification will become the prerequisite to open their services to tourists, the director-general of the TCB urges all hotel owners and staff to get receive the training.
The council will conduct similar training in other dzongkhags as well.
Meanwhile, the conversion and standardization of the budget hotels are being done as per the executive order issued by the government to standardize and certify all non-star-rated hotels in the country.
Today, there are more than 180 star-rated hotels and over 500 budget hotels in the country.
Karma Wangdi, Thimphu
Edited by Chayku
