Assessment of Current Training Program and Its Effectiveness in Hotels of Bhutan

The increasing number of tourist in Bhutan demands for more high-quality hotels to provide better services to guests. The objectives of the study are, (1) to assess the current training provided to the hotel employees; (2) to evaluate the training gap concerning training design and; (3) to examine relationship between the training factors affecting the training effectiveness in Bhutanese hotel industry. Findings showed mismatch of training provided to employees resulting in poor quality of service. Negative score was found between the importance and satisfaction level of hotel employees on contents of training design. However the results showed positive relationship between the training factors and training effectiveness, work environment has strong influence.     

Local Perspectives on the Impact of Tourism on Religious Festivals in Bhutan

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is known to embrace Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product as the measure of its people's well-being. Happiness, spirituality and cultural authenticity are prominent factors in Bhutan's tourism image, and these attributes are most clearly exhibited in the traditional festivals that are among the most popular attractions for many foreign tourists. This paper introduces the cultural practice of religious festivals in Bhutan and investigates how tourism may be affecting these festivals. Within this context, this paper reports on the findings of a survey of Bhutanese monks and lay people, regarding their impressions of the effects of tourists on one particular event – the Tsechu festival. With the Bhutanese government's aim to increase the number of annual tourists more than fourfold to 200,000 by 2018, this research provides a baseline study of the perceived impact of tourism on religious festivals and addresses the issue of whether such an increase in volume of tourists would pose a threat to the integrity and value of these festivals as perceived by Bhutanese people.     

Tourism Development: The Challenges of Achieving Sustainable Livelihoods in Bhutan's Remote Reaches

Merak–Sakteng is a remote area of Bhutan, which is targeted for development of tourism owing to the unique culture and way of life of the semi‐nomadic local ‘Brokpa’ people, whose livelihoods depend on herding yaks and sheep. These livestock enter forests where local residents and government see their grazing as threatening their crops and causing environmental degradation. The semi‐nomadic life centred on livestock, which has long been essential to Brokpa culture and economy, thus comes under threat. The opening of Merak–Sakteng to tourism is intended to address this conflict by lessening the Brokpas' economic dependence on livestock. This paper reports on research into the potential of tourism to transform this ethnic minority's economic way of life through the introduction of tourism into the local livelihood mix. Sustainable livelihoods issues are investigated through a consideration of both economic and socio‐cultural aspects of the local way of life, based on observation, and the findings of a survey of local people, semi‐structured interviews with village leaders and government officials concerning development of the area. The survey found that despite land‐use conflicts and limited grazing land, Brokpas still aspired to spend money gained from tourism on purchasing more yaks, which may escalate land‐use conflicts and threaten environmental sustainability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.