NITN | @notintownlive | 23 Sep 2022, 12:18 pm
Bhutan
Image Credit: Unsplash
Guwahati/IBNS: After shutting its doors to international tourists for two and a half years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bhutan re-opened its borders on Friday.
The reopening has come with a revised tourism levy, called the Sustainable Development Fee.
With the reopening of the borders, Bhutan raised its Sustainable Development Fee to $200 per visitor per night from the $65 it had been charging foreign tourists for the last three decades.
Indians were not charged anything before the pandemic began, but as per the new rules, they now have to pay a sum of Rs1200.
However, the revised fee for Indian tourists was never implemented.
In March 2020, Bhutan shut its borders to visitors, which is a major source of income for the country, after detecting its first case of COVID-19.
The Himalayan Kingdom of fewer than 800,000 people has reported a little over 61,000 infections and only 21 deaths. However, its economy has suffered in the last two years, causing a spike in poverty.
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