Bhutan: Where Travel Still Holds Its Mystique

Tourism in Bhutan has long carried an air of mystique. For decades, the Himalayan kingdom kept the world at arm’s length, its borders open only to those willing to commit time, money and a degree of intention to the journey. Today, however, the country finds itself in an intriguing moment: still deeply protective of its heritage and landscapes, yet cautiously welcoming greater numbers of visitors. Figures from Bhutan’s Department of Tourism tell the story. Arrivals in 2024 reached 145,065, that’s a 41 per cent increase over 2023, and 2025 is already shaping up to be another strong year. For a nation with a population of barely three quarters of a million, these are not insignificant numbers.

Indian travellers dominate the market, accounting for more than 94,000 arrivals in 2024, but the appeal of Bhutan has clearly widened. Nearly 61,000 “third country” visitors, as the government calls them, made the journey last year, drawn by an ever-growing reputation for cultural immersion, highland trekking, and wellness. In 2025, India remains in first place, but regional neighbours,  Thailand, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia and China, are all asserting themselves as key source markets. This breadth speaks to Bhutan’s evolving strategy: a quiet expansion, anchored in sustainability.

Central to this strategy is the newly announced Bhutan Integrated Tourism Master Plan 2025–2034, a decade-long roadmap that sets out to diversify the tourism product, improve visitor management, enhance skills across the sector, and, crucially, open-up lesser-visited corners of the kingdom. The plan acknowledges that the demand is there, but insists that growth will never be pursued at the expense of culture, ecology or community.

That insistence on quality over quantity was a theme in conversation with Ugyen Y. Lhendrup, Managing Director of OnlyBhutan Tour, when he sat down with David Barrett, host of the Trends interview series, during the PATA Travel Mart PTM2025 in Bangkok. “Tourism is Bhutan’s second-largest source of income,” Lhendrup explained, “but we have a very different philosophy. We follow the high-value, low-volume approach. Every visitor pays a Sustainable Development Fee, which directly funds healthcare and education in Bhutan. These are provided free to all citizens. So, when tourists come, they are not just seeing the country, they are actively contributing to its wellbeing.”

It is a concept at odds with the mass-market model that drives tourism in so many parts of the world. Bhutan’s ceiling on numbers, the government generally aims to keep annual arrivals between 200,000 and 300,000, is deliberate. For the traveller, the result is profound: monasteries not overrun, mountain trails unspoiled, and the sense that one has stepped into a way of life still intact. As Lhendrup puts it, “Bhutan is not just a destination, it is a place where cultures and traditions are alive, where spirituality is everywhere.”

OnlyBhutan Tour caters largely to American, European and South-East Asian clients. Their interests, says Lhendrup, range from cultural immersion to multi-day treks through the wilderness. The majority of onlyBhutan Tour’s customers tend to be older travellers, those with both the resources and the appetite for journeys of depth rather than distraction. The seven-day stay is typical, enough time to grasp something of the kingdom’s rhythms, though some linger longer, moving beyond the well-trodden sites.

For those with a week to spare, Lhendrup points to three essential experiences. First, the famed Tiger’s Nest monastery, Paro Taktsang, a precarious complex of temples clinging to a cliff face at more than 3,000 metres above sea level. It is not merely a postcard image, but a sacred site of pilgrimage for Bhutanese themselves, each aspiring to make the climb at least once in their lifetime. Second, Punakha Dzong, the great fortress-monastery that served as the seat of government for centuries and remains a masterpiece of Bhutanese architecture, rising at the confluence of two rivers against a backdrop of forested hills. And third, the Paro Valley itself, where the country’s only international airport lies, a broad, fertile landscape of rice paddies, traditional houses, and, increasingly, small cafés where visitors and locals mingle.

The conversation touched, too, on food, a subject where Bhutan’s authenticity shines through. For the curious, there is no better introduction than ema datshi, the national dish of chillies and cheese, eaten with the ubiquitous red rice. Chillies in Bhutan are not a garnish but a vegetable, incorporated into stews, curries and even meat dishes. Western palates are catered to in hotels and restaurants, but to venture into the local cuisine is to understand the Bhutanese character: fiery, direct and sustaining.

If tourism is growing, it is not unchecked. That is precisely the point. Bhutan’s leaders and operators such as OnlyBhutan Tour are clear that their model is not to replicate the excesses of regional neighbours. Instead, they offer what might be called a corrective: tourism that is intimate, participatory, and, in Lhendrup’s words, “filled with excitement and happiness.” The notion that travel should bring joy not just to the visitor but also to the host community is more than a slogan here; it is a lived policy.

A visit to Bhutan requires more effort. It asks for commitment, financial and physical. But in return it offers something increasingly rare: an experience unsullied by overtourism, rooted in spiritual and cultural authenticity and sustained by a government that sees tourism not as an extractive industry but as a national investment. In an era where travel often feels commodified, Bhutan remains, resolutely, an exception.