March 04: Most hoteliers welcomed the government’s recent decision to allow 100% foreign investment to build five star hotels and above in the country. But there is one thing which left many of them worried.

It is the government’s directive to upgrade all two star hotels and below into three stars within the next two years. Hoteliers want to continue catering to tourists even if they should fail to upgrade their hotels.

As many as 87 hotels in the country will have to upgrade their services in the next two years. But most hoteliers said that it is not fair as they are already debt ridden.

The idea according to the government is not to push the hoteliers out of the tourism industry but to push them into elevating their standards and services. The Prime Minister said this will help make Bhutan an exclusive destination.

“Despite 36 years of tourism operation in our country, our infrastructures still do not differ. There is so much more we need to do and that we have to do for a country that has been boasting of higher quality and low quantity tourism,” said the Prime Minister, Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley.

Around 71% of the tourists were satisfied with the hotels as indicated in the Tourism Council of Bhutan’s Annual Report of 2008.

Meanwhile, the Hotel Association of Bhutan is anxiously waiting for new categorisation of hotels which the government said will be redone as per the Bhutanese standard.