Supporting ‘Bhutan Believe’: The SUSTOUR Bhutan story so far

Bhutan believes it is (or could be) the world’s green­est and most respons­ible travel des­tin­a­tion. The SUSTOUR Bhutan pro­ject, fun­ded by the European Uni­on under its SWITCH-Asia pro­gramme, is sup­port­ing Bhutan’s effort to real­ise this goal with a focus on sus­tain­able, inclus­ive, and resi­li­ent tour­ism development. 

“The SUSTOUR pro­ject stands as a beacon of rel­ev­ance and import­ance for Bhutan, par­tic­u­larly in nav­ig­at­ing the com­plex­it­ies of tour­ism post-COV­ID, while uphold­ing our prin­ciples of sustainability.”

Dorji Dhradhul, Dir­ect­or Gen­er­al, Depart­ment of Tour­ism (DoT), Bhutan

Launched in 2020, SUSTOUR Bhutan tar­gets the entire value chain: tour oper­at­ors, hotels, res­taur­ants, guides, trans­port­a­tion, and suppliers. 

Des­pite COVID dom­in­at­ing much of its time­frame, SUSTOUR Bhutan has established:

• Trav­elife Part­ner­ship (for eli­gible tour operators)
• The Bhutan Green Hotels stand­ard (for all accom­mod­a­tion types)
• Low-car­bon Bhutan travel pack­ages (with a ‘Net Zero’ 2030 target)

Navigating the COVID lockdown

Tour­ism is Bhutan’s top for­eign rev­en­ue source, but the COVID lock­down turned off the tap for almost two years. By 2022, tour­ism was on the brink of col­lapse, and Bhutan sought a com­pre­hens­ive recov­ery path.

“COVID and its after­math had a more pro­found impact on Bhutan’s tour­ism than most coun­tries. Tour com­pan­ies closed their oper­a­tions … The lock­down also forced the gov­ern­ment to rethink the entire tour­ism strategy, res­ult­ing in a new tour­ism policy and sharpened tour­ism rules and regulations.” 

Sonam Dorji, Exec­ut­ive Dir­ect­or, Asso­ci­ation of Bhu­tanese Tour Operators

SUSTOUR Bhutan adap­ted to the lock­down. Most field-related activ­it­ies had come to a stand­still, so the pro­ject went online to inform stake­hold­ers and con­duct an ini­tial value chain ana­lys­is. The pro­ject con­cen­trated on devel­op­ing con­di­tions, cri­ter­ia, and tools, while estab­lish­ing net­works, data­bases, and doc­u­ment­a­tion protocols. 

The pro­ject also con­duc­ted an EU and region­al mar­ket sur­vey of more than 100 travel com­pan­ies to bet­ter pos­i­tion the country’s brand.

As a res­ult, Bhutan tour­ism is focussed on the “more mature, sus­tain­ab­il­ity-sens­it­ive mar­ket that wants to feel authen­t­ic immer­sion in tra­di­tion­al cul­tures and be sur­roun­ded by pristine nat­ur­al envir­on­ments,” Mr Dorji said. 

These European vis­it­ors are also “aware of their car­bon foot­print, want to leave a pos­it­ive impact on the des­tin­a­tion, and want real, mean­ing­ful qual­ity, not super­fi­cial luxuries”. 

The European source mar­ket would be the primary focus of SUSTOUR Bhutan. Mr Dorji noted that by 2024, at glob­al trade events such as ITB Ber­lin, the pro­ject was facil­it­at­ing “match-mak­ing between Bhu­tanese Trav­elife Part­ner-level tour oper­at­ors with like-minded European tour operators.”

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‘A feeling of optimism is blowing through’

When the lock­down ended, the pro­ject quickly got back on track. 

“The pro­ject had a strong ‘next steps’ kick off gath­er­ing in May 2022, when the bor­ders were just opened and pub­lic meet­ings in Bhutan were allowed … Interest in the SUSTOUR Bhutan pro­ject was enorm­ous. It was the first time after almost two years to dis­cuss tour­ism development.” 

Sonam Dorji, Exec­ut­ive Dir­ect­or, ABTO

Some 120 tour oper­at­ors, hotels, NGOs, and gov­ern­ment organ­isa­tions atten­ded this first meet­ing. Next came a tour oper­at­or train­ing course with about 60 par­ti­cipants, hotel work­shops with almost 50 attendees, and a match-mak­ing exer­cise between 60 tour oper­at­ors and 30 hotels. 

The team vis­ited Paro, Thim­phu, and Punakha val­leys to col­lect and com­pile value chain data from some 50 tour oper­at­ors and 30 hotels and their suppliers. 

They also organ­ised meet­ings to study waste man­age­ment at tour­ism sites, and came up with strategies for the gov­ern­ment to consider. 

“How­ever, the major goal is to avoid waste in the first place. Each par­ti­cipant has a zero-waste goal,” Mr Dorji stated. 

The pro­ject still faced challenges: 

“The new tour­ism policy and the short­age of human resources caused some reduced enthusiasm. 

“The pro­ject had to retrain, cre­at­ing delays, but things have sta­bil­ised and a feel­ing of optim­ism is blow­ing through the tour­ism sector.” 

Sonam Dorji, Exec­ut­ive Dir­ect­or, ABTO

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The tour operator-Travelife connection

More than 90 tour oper­at­ors have par­ti­cip­ated in free SUSTOUR Trav­elife train­ing work­shops, and the pro­ject recently announced the award­ing of Trav­elife Part­ner status to 16 of them. 

The 2024 ‘Bhutan Believe’ bro­chure presents these busi­nesses along with approved tour­ism products and packages.

Mr Dhradhul and Mr Dorji both noted the value of SUSTOUR Bhutan’s Trav­elife connection:

“Trav­elife is essen­tial for tour oper­at­ors seek­ing to demon­strate their com­mit­ment to sus­tain­ab­il­ity. Becom­ing a Trav­elife Part­ner requires meet­ing strin­gent cri­ter­ia related to envir­on­ment­al man­age­ment, social respons­ib­il­ity, and eth­ic­al busi­ness practices.” 

Dorji Dhradhul, Dir­ect­or Gen­er­al, Depart­ment of Tour­ism (DoT), Bhutan

“[Trav­elife] is an import­ant instru­ment to upscale the stand­ard of tour oper­a­tions in Bhutan [which is] extremely import­ant, as tour oper­at­ors are the primary cli­ent-engager and must be able to artic­u­late Bhutan’s uniqueness.”

Sonam Dorji, Exec­ut­ive Dir­ect­or, ABTO

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Bhutan Green Hotels: A world-first national standard

The SUSTOUR pro­ject has developed the Bhutan Green Hotels stand­ard, the first in the world to cer­ti­fy every hotel in the coun­try. This was presen­ted at ITB Ber­lin in March 2024.

“This is a really big deal for Bhutan. 

“It is the first coun­try-wide green assess­ment sys­tem for all types of accom­mod­a­tion. The stand­ard is also aligned with the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) and region­al cer­ti­fic­a­tion programs.”

Sonam Dorji, Exec­ut­ive Dir­ect­or, ABTO

“The Bhutan Green Hotels stand­ard is tailored to reflect Bhutan’s envir­on­ment­al and cul­tur­al con­text. It emphas­ises prin­ciples such as respect for nature, pre­ser­va­tion of cul­tur­al her­it­age, and sup­port for loc­al com­munit­ies. While it may share sim­il­ar­it­ies with inter­na­tion­al stand­ards, it incor­por­ates spe­cif­ic cri­ter­ia rel­ev­ant to Bhutan’s sus­tain­able tour­ism goals.” 

Dorji Dhradhul, Dir­ect­or Gen­er­al, Depart­ment of Tour­ism (DoT), Bhutan

To date, some 100 hotels have been trained, and about 200 of their sup­pli­ers are going through the process.

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‘Net Zero’ by 2030 …

“[W]e are con­fid­ent of reach­ing ‘Net Zero’ before 2030.”

Robin Boustead, ESG con­sult­ant and soft­ware developer

Most of the Bhutan Believe bro­chure pack­ages show car­bon foot­print reduc­tions of more than 60% since 2019. 

This is thanks to a green­house gas (GHG) cal­cu­la­tion sys­tem for busi­ness oper­a­tions and tour­ism pack­ages that SUSTOUR Bhutan is pilot­ing under the guid­ance of Robin Boustead, envir­on­ment­al, social, and cor­por­ate gov­ernance (ESG) con­sult­ant and soft­ware developer. 

SUSTOUR selec­ted the CARMACAL tool for cal­cu­lat­ing the GHG emis­sions of tour­ism products, and incor­por­ated land trans­port options and ele­ments of the Bhutan Green Hotels stand­ard. The pro­ject applied this cal­cu­la­tion meth­od to 16 tour­ism products such as dzongs, mon­as­ter­ies, and homestays. 

“For each product, we con­sidered a range of factors includ­ing trans­port­a­tion options, activ­it­ies and sup­port ser­vices, waste man­age­ment, energy use, and food and bever­age ser­vices,” Mr Boustead explained.

The pro­ject iden­ti­fied these con­trib­ut­ing factors, pri­or­it­ised emis­sions, and worked out the most appro­pri­ate meth­od­o­logy for meas­ur­ing and mon­it­or­ing them.

… is not that complicated

“This sounds more com­plic­ated than it was as many of the products were actu­ally quite sim­il­ar,” Mr Boustead said. 

“Once we have the energy use or rel­ev­ant emis­sion source, it is simple to apply the appro­pri­ate emis­sion factor to cal­cu­late the amount of GHG emit­ted per annum, or per vis­it­or, or per ticket.”

Quickly achiev­ing sig­ni­fic­ant GHG emis­sion drops relied heav­ily on elec­tric vehicles (EVs).

“The gov­ern­ment recently intro­duced 300 EV tax­is into the coun­try, which are pop­u­lar with tour­ism oper­at­ors, so adop­tion has been rapid.”

The Bhutan Green Hotels stand­ard has had an imme­di­ate impact, Mr Boustead asserts, although “there is still much to do to reduce GHG emis­sions from accommodations”. 

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Sustainable incentives for the future

What hap­pens when the pro­ject ends? 

For the industry, SUSTOUR Bhutan is sup­port­ing a green fin­an­cing scheme for micro and small enter­prises to pur­sue green­er and more respons­ible busi­ness practices. 

ABTO’s Mr Dorji explained: “We are work­ing closely with the Min­istry of Fin­ance in devel­op­ing a green tax­onomy, and dis­cus­sions are on the way to ration­al­ise fisc­al incentives.”

At the des­tin­a­tion level, Bhutan’s Depart­ment of Tour­ism along with SUSTOUR Bhutan have been review­ing Green Des­tin­a­tions’ aud­it­or-eval­u­ated des­tin­a­tion cer­ti­fic­a­tion accred­ited by the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Council.

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Appreciation

Thanks to all the achieve­ments since 2020 — des­pite the chal­lenges of a glob­al pan­dem­ic, and recog­nising that there is much more to do — there is no doubt that Bhutan appre­ci­ates SUS­TOUR’s tech­nic­al assistance:

“SUSTOUR pos­i­tions Bhutan at the fore­front of respons­ible tour­ism. By fos­ter­ing resi­li­ence, empower­ing stake­hold­ers, and pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able prac­tices, SUSTOUR safe­guards our nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age while ensur­ing the long-term prosper­ity of our tour­ism industry. 

“As Bhutan con­tin­ues to inspire glob­al con­ver­sa­tion on respons­ible travel, SUSTOUR remains an import­ant play­er in our jour­ney towards a more sus­tain­able, regen­er­at­ive, and har­mo­ni­ous future.”

Dorji Dhradhul, Dir­ect­or Gen­er­al, Depart­ment of Tour­ism (DoT), Bhutan

Con­tents ^

About SUSTOUR Bhutan

The SUSTOUR Bhutan pro­ject is an innov­at­ive and prac­tic­al approach to improv­ing sus­tain­able con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion in Bhutan’s tour­ism sec­tor. It is sup­por­ted by the Asso­ci­ation of Bhu­tanese Tour Oper­at­ors (ABTO), the Hotel and Res­taur­ant Asso­ci­ation of Bhutan (HRAB), Alli­anz selb­ständi­ger Reiseun­terneh­men – Bundes­verb­and e.V. (ASR), European Centre for Eco­lo­gic­al and Agri­cul­tur­al Tour­ism (ECEAT), and Trav­elife, fin­anced through SWITCH-Asia.

Now in its fourth year of pro­ject imple­ment­a­tion, SUSTOUR Bhutan’s cur­rent focus is on fur­ther strength­en­ing stake­hold­ers at nation­al, des­tin­a­tion, and indi­vidu­al enter­prise level, and rolling out new sus­tain­able and low-car­bon products to market. 

Book a meet­ing with the Bhutan team: switchasia.travelife.info/book-bhutan/

Learn more

Learn more from the 2024 ‘Bhutan Believe’ sus­tain­able tour bro­chure (PDF).

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