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Bhutan—The Real Happiest Place on Earth: Industry: Tourism

Industry: Tourism

The Story

There are only eight pilots in the world who are licensed to land an Airbus 319 in Bhutan. The isolated country is one of the world’s most remote places, hidden in the eastern Himalayas between India and China. The country is also heavily influenced by their national religion of Buddhism, which has led to a rather surprising tourism policy.

In order to visit Bhutan, any tourist must pay a daily fee of $200, which covers guides and basic transportation. The policy is meant to encourage only high-end tourism and reduce the annual volume of tourists who visit the country. On the surface, this may seem like an odd thing to do. After all, why would any country want to limit tourists?

Bhutan, however, uses a different metric to make decisions. BusinessWeek magazine once rated Bhutan as the happiest country in Asia and the eighth happiest in the world. The government measures its citizens’ gross national happiness (GNH) in much the same way that other countries measure gross domestic product (GDP).

No national policy is passed without first going through the happiness test to see if it will add to the GNH or take away from it. Cigarettes and plastic bags are banned, as neither is seen to be adding to the GNH. In addition, every citizen is given land by the government and the culture is one of extreme gentleness.

Their tourism policy has meant that more than 90 percent of the people coming to Bhutan ...