Community tourism benefits Nabji-Korphu villagers

Friday- September 16

With a few pilot community tourism projects being implemented in rural communities, the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) is now reviewing the benefits of the initiative.

TCB reviewed the Nabji-Korphu Community Tourism Project in Trongsa. The review found that in three years since its start, the project has generated a total income of Nu 961,060 for the community.

It saw 287 tourist visits from 2006 to 2009, and contributed US$ 149,240 as royalty to the government. The royalty exceeded the cost of the project of US$ 114,975. The figures validate the commercial viability of the project, say analysts.

Records show that the income per household was US$ 101. There are 211 households in the villages. This is an increase from socio-economic baseline study conducted in 2006 at the start of the project.

In 2006, 23 percent of the households did not earn any cash income. And 50 percent of the total households earned less than Nu 3,000 a year.

However, during the final impact assessment, about 77 percent of the households indicated that they received economic benefits through supplementary household income from the community.

The TCB media focal person, Damcho Rinzin, said the direct economic benefits have not been up to expectations. However, there have been some socio-cultural benefits. “It has helped celebrate and revive long-forgotten practices [of the community],” he said.

He said the people benefitted out of porter services, local guides, campsite fees, errands, cultural programmes, and sale of vegetables and handicraft products.

Problems

The Nabji-Korphu Trek has its own share of problems. It witnessed a drop in the number of trekkers in its third year of operation. Visitor arrivals decreased by 29.7 percent in 2009.

Officials said that this could be attributed to the overall dip in tourist arrivals in 2009.  It had some obstacles from the beginning itself.

Some campsites and toilets were in an unusable condition. A major flood in 2008 washed away the bridges connecting the villages.

The review report says, “Tour operators are losing interest in promoting the trek because of management problems in the communities. It poses a threat to the viability of the project and undermines its sustainability in the long-run.”

The report seeks ‘immediate intervention’ from the stakeholders to address the shortfalls and make corrections from the lessons learnt.

Lessons

One of the major recommendations is the need to clearly specify the role of various agencies involved. “While partners collaborated ideally during the project, there has been an underlying tussle as to who should be in the driver’s seat,” states the report.

The Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO) was the agency responsible for mobilising the funds. TCB planned the project and Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park was responsible for coordination, supervision, and monitoring.

Another fundamental shortcoming of the project was the minimal literacy level and exposure of the people in the communities. Most residents are farmers engaged in shifting cultivation and fruit gathering.

“Youth who had some middle-level education had migrated to other towns, where better economic opportunities were available. The ones remaining in the villages barely had an opinion over the elders,” says the report.

Between July 2010 and September this year, TCB recorded a total of 69 visitors to Nabji-Korphu.

The Nabji-Korphu pilot project is winter-based. It has a low altitude trekking route with six resident communities. The site was chosen after a feasibility study by the Netherlands development organization (SNV) and Nature Conservation Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests in 2003.

The objective of the project was to explore a new product to promote and diversify tourism. It also aims at addressing seasonality problems and spreading tourism benefits in the country.

Some tour products of Nabji Trek include visits to small Bhutanese mountain villages, the Monpa ethnic group, and sightings of endangered and vulnerable species like the golden langur and rufous-necked hornbill.

By Pushkar Chhetri

3 Responses to “Community tourism benefits Nabji-Korphu villagers”

1. sangay says:

   September 22, 2011 at 12:08 pm

   This project seems very beneficial to the people in the community to raise the income and improve their living and why not such project could started in other parts of the country to spread the development evenly
   Thanks

   Reply
2. Som Doji says:

   October 8, 2011 at 10:30 am

   Good to know that the comunity people are being helped.

   Reply
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