Bhutan Reopens to Travellers With a Higher Daily Fee

Bhutan reopened to foreign visitors on 23 September 2022, after two and a half years in which its borders had been closed. It returned with a new set of rules. The most discussed was the amount each visitor pays the state for every night spent in the country, which was raised from US$65 to US$200.

The old system and the new

Bhutan first admitted tourists in 1974 and has always limited their number by price. For decades every visitor had to book through a licensed operator and pay a minimum daily rate, latterly US$250 in high season. This covered a hotel, meals, a guide, a car and a royalty to the government of US$65.

In 2022 the minimum package was abolished. Visitors may now book hotels and guides separately and choose what they spend. In its place the royalty, called the Sustainable Development Fee, became a separate charge of US$200 a person a night, payable with the visa. The government said the money would go to free health care and education, to conservation, and to offsetting the carbon cost of tourism. It presented the change as a renewal of its long-standing policy of high value and low volume.

The fee is halved

Visitor numbers recovered slowly. In 2023 the government cut the fee to US$100 a night, with a reduction for children, and said the lower rate would remain until 2027. Visitors from India, the largest group of arrivals, pay a separate rate of 1,200 rupees a night.

The trail

The reopening coincided with another event. On 28 September 2022 the Trans Bhutan Trail was opened to walkers for the first time in sixty years. The path runs for 403 kilometres from Haa in the west to Trashigang in the east. It was the route of messengers and pilgrims until a road was built in the 1960s. Its restoration, begun in 2018, involved rebuilding 18 bridges and more than 10,000 steps, and employed some 900 workers who had lost their jobs when the borders closed.

What it means for a journey

The fee is paid for each night and adds a known sum to the cost of a stay. For a week it comes to US$700 a person at the present rate. A guide remains compulsory for travel beyond the towns of Paro and Thimphu, and almost all visitors still use an operator or a hotel to arrange the trip. The end of the fixed package has chiefly helped the luxury lodges, whose guests always paid well above the minimum, and independent travellers at the other end of the range.

The lodge circuits have grown in the same period. Six Senses completed its five lodges, and andBeyond opened in Punakha in 2023. The country’s second international airport is under construction at Gelephu. For what to do on arrival, see our guides to the tshechu festivals and to the hot stone bath.