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Standardising tourist hotels starts

5 March 2010

A six-member team led by TCB started a countrywide hotel standardization and classification assessment yes­terday. The assessment is in line with the government’s decision which requires all hotels catering to tourists to be upgraded to a minimum of three star category.

The month-long exercise will assesses tourist hotels and accommodations reg­istered with the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB). The hotels have been given two years to upgrade themselves.

The past grading system, which categorized hotels into class A, B and C, was done away with as tourists started demanding international grading.

The government will sup­ply upgradation of hotels. In line with this, TCB is devis­ing incentive schemes in the form of tax breaks, easy ac­cess to loans and duty exemp­tions, among others, to help upgrade hotels. The govern­ment will give a 10-year tax break for hotels constructed between 2010 and 2015.

However, some hoteliers say that taking additional loans for upgradation is a con­cern since there is no guaran­tee that 100,000 tourists will come in by the end of 2012.

But according to the Joint Director of TCB’s services division, Kunzang Norbu, since there would not be major structural changes to the hotels, upgradation of infrastructure may not cost much. He said that the cat­egory of the hotels would not be determined by the number of rooms but basic require­ments. Although star rating will be based on the international standard, the system will be Bhutanised to suit local re­quirements including green or environmentally-friendly elements that can earn extra points.

Lodges, guest houses, farm houses, and apartments will follow a different guideline, not star rating system.

Today, tourists come only through tour operators, but from 2011, they can come through hotels as well. This is expected to increase the tour­ist inflow.

The hotel assessment team consists of members from TCB, Association of Bhuta­nese Tour Operators, Hotel Association of Bhutan, and Bhutan Chamber of Com­merce and Industry led by a consultant, who was involved in designing the classification system.

Today, there are 124 TCB approved hotels, 46 of which are under construction. Thir­ty-three hotels cater to region­al tourists and 33 restaurants, to international tourists.

Back Drop

Facilities requirements

  • Three star hotel
  • Standard single room – 10 m2
  • Standard double room – 16 m2
  • All rooms equipped with bath, shower and toilet
  • TV, direct dial telephone and clock/alarm in the room
  • A lobby, reception desk occupied during day time
  • Luggage rack
  • Lightproof curtains or blinds in the rooms
  • Full breakfast
  • Restaurant with ala carte menu
  • Room service during the day
  • At least one international credit card accepted

Three star guest house and lodge

  • Good quality comfortable bedrooms
  • Well-maintained practical décor
  • Good choice of quality items available for breakfast
  • Other meals, where provided, are freshly cooked
  • Good level of customer care

Apartments (self catering tourist accommoda­tions)

  • May not provide any meals and provide limited other services
  • Bed linens and towel changes may not be offered
  • Cleaning of rooms may be limited to once a week
  • Basic kitchen equipment to meet essential cooking re­quirements and appropriate dish/cutlery is a minimum standard
  • All technical quality standards are in compliance to one to three star ratings of hotels and guest houses.

By Sonam Pelden

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Posted by Bhutan Observer · Filed Under News 

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3 Responses to “Standardising tourist hotels starts”

  1. Mukesh Gupta on March 5th, 2010 10:43 am

    McKinsey or McDonald-ization of Tourism in Bhutan

    I am writing about the “prestigious” firm of McKinsey & Company hired by Bhutan to “advise” the country as to its potential growth and / or development. First of all, I am not sure if the hired company’s task is related to “advising” the country in general terms or that it relates specifically to the Tourism aspect of the country only. In any case, knowing and loving Bhutan as I do, I think whatever the reason and purview of the consultancy, I personally think it was not a good choice… Please let me explain this aspect of the question. Being in the travel industry for over 30 years, I feel that I am somewhat credible and do have the necessary experience and expertise to justify my above assertions.

    In this please allow me to give you a short, but relevant, background on myself. Starting in the mid-70s I was very closely associated with a travel and trekking company based in Darjeeling / Sikkim and Nepal. In fact, the company that I was associated with was the FIRST agency to actually send foreign (western) tourists to Bhutan. Later on when I had my own agency in Darjeeling, we were very closely associated with the kingdom and its travel industry. During my several visits into the country I had the opportunity to see the beautiful country and its peoples– specially in its nascent stages of developments. In fact in the early 1980s I even spent a couple of weeks in the country trying to reccy several of its rivers as possible commercial rafting trips in the country. In any case I mention these only to reflect my long time association with the country from its very inception when it first opened up for tourism. In 1984, I moved to the USA and was lucky to involve myself in the travel industry and soon thereafter started my own travel company (www.travelinterlink.com) specializing in travel to exotic destinations of the world. As such I have been very fortunate to research, design and operate very specialized trips for my clients. Special trips such as expeditions to the South Pole….. exploring the dense jungles of Africa looking for the mountain gorilla…… or enjoying the depths of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. As such I have gained a very good insight into the many (if not all) of these exotic and as I call them– very special places – of the world. However, selling and arranging– for over a quarter of a century– very such special tours and programs to many of these “special places of the world,” I must confess that no destination holds more of a special place in my heart than does Bhutan… and that is why I have taken the task of writing this letter and offer my viewpoint for whatever it is worth. This and a very recent turn of events that has taken place in my life that has tempted me to write this…. That recent event is the taking over of the operations and the management of BHUTAN TRAVEL in New York. For people who do not know, Bhutan Travel was the first and the Official Tourist Office of the Royal Government of Bhutan. It was in fact for many years the Royal Bhutan Tourism Corporation’s office in New York and conducted its affairs sending tourists into the kingdom. Ever since my arrival in the US I was very happy to stay in touch with Bhutan through Bhutan Travel and starting January of this year was very fortunate to take over the company when its founder retired. As such, when I write about my thoughts on the future of tourism in Bhutan, I speak with a deep sense of love, experience and insight. While I agree completely on the Government’s intention of creating more jobs, income and employment for the young and the growing educated… we must always take into account at what costs–all costs. And this is where I think that the choice of a consulting company such as McKinsey is doomed from the start. This is because while McKinsey is undoubtedly at the top of their business, they are, without doubt, at the bottom when it comes to understanding the philosophy of country like Bhutan…. The bottom line for them is the bottom line– dollars. Everything is measured in terms of dollars and cents. While I happen to think that what Bhutan needs is more of a good sense and less of the bad cents.
    A good and careful “expansion” of the existing tourism policy in itself can generate more income and employment. I absolutely do not think that Bhutan should “open” up its tourism to more and mass tourism… if anything, I feel that it should be made much more exclusive either by price or demand (or both) management. Proof of my hypothesis is in the fact why Aman Resorts chose to have not one, not two, BUT FIVE of its super deluxe, super-priced resorts in the country). What attracts destinations such as Bhutan is its exclusivity…I know this is true.. I deal with such customers on a daily basis… We do not need Bhutan competing with Barbados… or with China and with all the other countries near and far, all the way down to Zanzibar…If that happens people just start weighing one against the other in “dollar terms.” .Bhutan does and can have its own exclusive place… and THAT is what does now (and will continue to in the future) attract the high end visitors with minimal environmental impact. After all that is what we all want to happen everywhere… But the point is that it is possible in a place such as Bhutan. And it is possible now. In addition, there are lots of other ways we can increase the high end tourist inflow and thus increase income and employment… How about high end eco and nature lodges in the National Parks…. mountain flight-seeing by helicopters… even landing at some of the high mountains– for a fee……. Allow commercial “expeditions” with good royalties to some of the smaller peaks…..How about “eco-conferences”. i.e. allow only those small and special conferences to take place in the country that will do minimum damage to the environment… I would call them “boutique” Conferences…. Conferences that by the very nature of them holding the conference in Bhutan would mean something and reflect something.. They can be small “peace conferences”… “environmental conferences… “ Conferences dealing with border disputes and such. In other words.. small, low impact, high end, high value conferences– with a message… a good message. In fact the more I think the more convinced I am that this could turn into such an unique product for the country… in fact something very new in the market defined by its nature. It would be very distinct and even revolutionary– in this field….. All one needs to do is to sit back, relax and think… it would, perhaps, could even have saved millions… 10 millions, to be exact.

    I could go on and on listing the philosophy of the esteemed consultants such as McKinsey as to why they are not a good fit in this particular case…..but a good search and research on the internet will take any avid computer user there for an answer.

    I hope, that at the end, the decision will be made based on long term happiness rather than short term economic gains.. after all having McKinsey there we do not want any “McDonald-ization” of tourism in the country,do we ?

    Thank you….
    Mukesh Gupta
    Bhutan Travel & Travel Interlink

  2. NewJersey on March 7th, 2010 10:47 pm

    Thanks for sharing your genuine concern. Much of this discussion is going on in this blog http://www.tsheringtobgay.com/government/2010/namrita-khandelwal.html/comment-page-1#comment-4454 ….and you might like to add your thoughts, ideas there.

  3. jamba on March 14th, 2010 12:17 am

    Mahesh, you said it all. I can not agree with you more. Thanks.

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