Bhutan: The country with a paywall

Fr_Fitzexactly

Unless you happen to know a Bhutanese citizen wanting to invite you over for a few weeks you will have to pay the "tourist tariff" of $250 USD per day if you want to visit this country.

Now this isn't some silly tax (although the price does include a $60 silly tax that just goes to the king to feed the Eunuchs presumably) but more of a minimum price that a tour operator may charge for a package holiday that includes accomodation, food and transport and a guide (kind of like North Korea, not sure how much transport you get)

There is no getting it cheaper unless you traverse the border illegally on the back of a billygoat. For what people on average spend on a holiday it might not seem too steep but these days its possible to get a ryanair flight and dos around some Eastern European country and spend less than 250 USD in a week, bring a tent to save on hostel costs, try to get paid for doing the odd nixer to extend your holiday.

Even in Ireland that money would last you a while if you didn't splurge and used hostels / camping instead of hotels and sipped cans of Dutch Gold or Beamish on the beach instead of going to a €6 pints place.

Is there any merit in such a system, should Ireland (if the EU would let them get away with it) charge people €200 a day minimum to visit this place and have the whole experience micromanaged and regulated by the government? Keep out the dang fordiners?

The Queen of England

Bhutan sounds like a disease.

Doctor - "I'm sorry to inform you that you have a bad dose of Bhutan. I'll have to prescribe you a course of Lesotho."

Chao

Fr_Fitzexactly wrote: »

Unless you happen to know a Bhutanese citizen wanting to invite you over for a few weeks you will have to pay the "tourist tariff" of $250 USD per day if you want to visit this country.

Now this isn't some silly tax (although the price does include a $60 silly tax that just goes to the king to feed the Eunuchs presumably) but more of a minimum price that a tour operator may charge for a package holiday that includes accomodation, food and transport and a guide (kind of like North Korea, not sure how much transport you get)

There is no getting it cheaper unless you traverse the border illegally on the back of a billygoat. For what people on average spend on a holiday it might not seem too steep but these days its possible to get a ryanair flight and dos around some Eastern European country and spend less than 250 USD in a week, bring a tent to save on hostel costs, try to get paid for doing the odd nixer to extend your holiday.

Even in Ireland that money would last you a while if you didn't splurge and used hostels / camping instead of hotels and sipped cans of Dutch Gold or Beamish on the beach instead of going to a €6 pints place.

Is there any merit in such a system, should Ireland (if the EU would let them get away with it) charge people €200 a day minimum to visit this place and have the whole experience micromanaged and regulated by the government? Keep out the dang fordiners?

No.

shruikan2553

I can imagine an Irish guided tour "If you look to the left you'll see a leprechaun village and to the right is the potato fields and guiness brewery which employs 90% of the population. In 10 minutes we'll be arriving at the monument of Bertie Ahern, you must bow to the statue and say "Dear Leader""

IceFjoem

State oliday iz bezt oliday.

Wacker The Attacker

go on the bhutan

Stinicker

Its to keep out the riff-raff and preserve the country, looking at how some other Asian countries get over-ran with misbehaving tourists I see it as a good idea.

ArtSmart

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

go on the bhutan

possible meanings


1/to consume alcohol in a quick and relentless manner

2/ to refrain from sexual relations for a set time

3/ to enter into a closed order convent

4/ to 'drop out' of society

5/ to refrain from serious drug use for 48 hours

6/ to use a sanitary product

7/ to 'do' the summer festival circuit


feel free to add more

orestes

shruikan2553 wrote: »

I can imagine an Irish guided tour "If you look to the left you'll see a leprechaun village and to the right is the potato fields and guiness brewery which employs 90% of the population. In 10 minutes we'll be arriving at the monument of Bertie Ahern, you must bow to the statue and say "Dear Leader""

There's actually a leprechaun museum in Dublin which does really good business, and the Guinness tour does ridiculous numbers. Loads of tourists in Dublin, guided tours are pretty big business.

Cavehill Red

Bhutan is awesome. The government maintains a national happiness index to make sure that the populace stays sufficiently happy. It is a country run for the benefit of its people, not multinational corporations, or globalisation, or anyone else.
Fact is, they're happy off without tourists. They don't need them. By contrast, there is no end of sadsack Westerners trying to 'find themselves' by going to places known for their spirituality, and then ruining them by doing loads of drugs and paying the locals for sex.
They're quite right to discourage tourism if they believe it will affect their happiness index.

IceFjoem

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Bhutan is awesome. The government maintains a national happiness index to make sure that the populace stays sufficiently happy. It is a country run for the benefit of its people, not multinational corporations, or globalisation, or anyone else.
Fact is, they're happy off without tourists. They don't need them. By contrast, there is no end of sadsack Westerners trying to 'find themselves' by going to places known for their spirituality, and then ruining them by doing loads of drugs and paying the locals for sex.
They're quite right to discourage tourism if they believe it will affect their happiness index.

Jaysus, you'd think the sex would be included!

face1990

Cavehill Red wrote: »

It is a country run for the benefit of its people

Apart from the 100,000-odd people they expelled from the country in the 1990s & left as stateless refugees.

Cavehill Red

face1990 wrote: »

Apart from the 100,000-odd people they expelled from the country in the 1990s & left as stateless refugees.

They were as far as I know Indians of Nepalese ethnicity, or their offspring. The reason for the expulsions was two-fold; firstly, there was the example of Sikkim, where Nepalese immigration grew so large they were able to oust the native monarchy and force the kingdom to assimilate into India; secondly, many ethnic Nepalese engaged in an armed uprising against the government and army, backed by Nepalese political, military and financial support.
No doubt there was wrong on both sides, but as a tiny country sandwiched between much bigger ones, neighbouring two tiny nations (Sikkim and Tibet) which had both been overrun by foreign immigration to the point where they were annexed, I don't blame the Bhutanese for trying to preserve their independence and way of life.

Cavehill Red

IceFjoem wrote: »

Jaysus, you'd think the sex would be included!

Bud-um-tish.
But seriously, that is a genuine attitude. Sex tourism is a real phenomenon and has done much societal damage in places like Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

Andrewf20

I was there in 2011 for 4 days. Yes its around 250 dollars a day but that included everything - all meals, excursions, your guide and driver and we were put up in decent hotels.

My feelings on the place were mixed. They dont encourage you to wander off on your own so all day trips are guided. Its very quiet even in the capital Thimphu and the hotels we stayed in were half empty. The capital city doesnt even have traffic lights. You can forget heavy partying. Also the scenery barely changed in the regions we visited - medium height mountains, full of trees with a few buddhist temples and the like sprinkled across the land. There were very few young tourists there, id say 90% were over 50. They seem to want to discourage an influx of mass backpackers causing damage to the culture and land etc.

Also the Paro airport landing in a turbo prop calls for the wearing of a nappy. Youtube it for more.

Eh, the place has had that visa system in forever.. I wanted to go do NGO work for a year to bypass it but then I forgot about that idea.

robman60

I read previously that the tariff was introduced in order to deter broke hippies from going there and taking the cannabis that grows in the wild. Not even joking, it was in National Geographic some time last year I believe.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Some places in Germany do a toruist tax, and Berlin is thinking of bringing one in. Only about 3 euro a day though and it's added on to your hotel/hostel bill, so if you're couchsurfing or visiting friends, there are ways around it.

It's an idea, but at 200 bucks a day? Nowhere on Earth is worth that much.

becost

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

It's an idea, but at 200 bucks a day? Nowhere on Earth is worth that much.

Wouldn't even pay that if it was the moon.

They don't really want you to pay it either so no need to care.

Andrewf20

Andrewf20 wrote: »

I was there in 2011 for 4 days. Yes its around 250 dollars a day but that included everything - all meals, excursions, your guide and driver and we were put up in decent hotels.

My feelings on the place were mixed. They dont encourage you to wander off on your own so all day trips are guided. Its very quiet even in the capital Thimphu and the hotels we stayed in were half empty. The capital city doesnt even have traffic lights. You can forget heavy partying. Also the scenery barely changed in the regions we visited - medium height mountains, full of trees with a few buddhist temples and the like sprinkled across the land. There were very few young tourists there, id say 90% were over 50. They seem to want to discourage an influx of mass backpackers causing damage to the culture and land etc.

Also the Paro airport landing in a turbo prop calls for the wearing of a nappy. Youtube it for more.

So a city with no loud partying, no tourists, no drugs, with some pretty nice scenery and interesting sites to see?

Sounds like heaven to me, tbh.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Deleted User wrote: »

So a city with no loud partying, no tourists, no drugs, with some pretty nice scenery and interesting sites to see?

Sounds like heaven to me, tbh.

Sounds like Mayo to me.

af_thefragile

It works for Bhutan because its one of the few mysterious, unexplored "exotic" part of the world. So anyone who bothers travelling to visit that place won't mind paying the fee to stay there.

It won't work in Ireland because many people won't bother visiting here if they were charged a fee to stay here.

af_thefragile

Cavehill Red wrote: »

They were as far as I know Indians of Nepalese ethnicity, or their offspring. The reason for the expulsions was two-fold; firstly, there was the example of Sikkim, where Nepalese immigration grew so large they were able to oust the native monarchy and force the kingdom to assimilate into India; secondly, many ethnic Nepalese engaged in an armed uprising against the government and army, backed by Nepalese political, military and financial support.
No doubt there was wrong on both sides, but as a tiny country sandwiched between much bigger ones, neighbouring two tiny nations (Sikkim and Tibet) which had both been overrun by foreign immigration to the point where they were annexed, I don't blame the Bhutanese for trying to preserve their independence and way of life.

I wonder how do people on After Hours seem to know so much about what goes on in lands far and away...

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

af_thefragile wrote: »

I wonder how do people on After Hours seem to know so much about what goes on in lands far and away...

Some of us read books, some of us copy and paste from wiki, some of us actually have been to these places.

Cavehill Red

af_thefragile wrote: »

I wonder how do people on After Hours seem to know so much about what goes on in lands far and away...

What the princess said.
Specifically in this instance, because I'm Buddhist, I've met a lot of Buddhists in my time, including the odd Bhutanese, and I've been to that part of the world before, ie both India and Tibet, though not Bhutan. So I've got into conversations with knowledgeable people about the place and its history, and I respect their right not to welcome tourists.