A local tour operator and a government official seemingly in cahoots to bring in tourists with forged visa documents were detained by authorities concerned. The incident got its nip in the bud when a group of 28 tourists (being brought in by tour company Bhutan Breez) were honoring their due diligence at the Paro airport. It was discovered that 19 visas were forged.
As per rules, persons involved will be deported to their country of origin while a penalty of Nu 10,000 would be imposed. This really does not paint a good picture for the famed ‘Last Shangri-La,’ as 19 people goes back and tells 19 different tales of duplicity and undue discomfort in strange terrains.
Maybe it’s just another day at the office for countries much advanced in development and fairly acquainted to such happenstances, but not for Bhutan which has only begun to make its baby steps in the industry and yet an incident of this very nature has happened for the third time.
As far as the tour operators are concerned, it seems pretty adjustably convenient for one or two wishing to try such a stunt once in a while, because they can go about acquiring ‘a new license’ ‘under a different name’ when and if licenses are cancelled as penalty or punishment for engaging in such acts.
The tourism industry is the next big grosser of national revenue after the hydro-powers in terms of generating foreign exchange. It is not really a section to be complacently allowed to rest in the blind spot of laws, authority’s watchful gaze or the leniency of policies.
If not for nothing, this is the industry through which the world gets a front row perspective or a bird’s eye view of the country as culture is experienced firsthand and interactions are made up-close-and-personally.
While it has been a good while that brand Bhutan has been floated in the world arena for promotion in the best of manners and senses, the year 2015 is also the Visit Bhutan year, a much marketed and promoted tourist even, if one may say so.
Once again, reminds us and brings us to the topic of image; image that is constantly being painted beautifully and also smeared damagingly on its ends and bends.
In a military way of functions, an individual’s fault gets the rest equally punished for no shortcoming of theirs. This does not apply to daily civilian lives but in this case, selfish acts of one or two untoward minds will definitely get the whole nation tagged and bagged under a common unpleasant or unprofitable label – that of being frauds, that of being liars and that of being pretentious experts trying to teach ‘Happiness’ to the world.
Outlooks can be a generation of panicky catalysts, and yet it can also be said things are what they are as they first spring to mind. These frequently appearing gaps in an otherwise stabilized environment should be fixed promptly and proactively.
Published as Business Bhutan Editorial on May 09, 2015
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