In an email to all its member tour operators, ABTO urged the importance of electing a strong Board of Directors in it’s upcoming Annual General Meeting. The email read as:
Although the last date for submission of names of the candidates for the next ABTO Board of Directors is 9th May 2008, this is to kindly remind all our valued members for the submission of the names of the 9 appropriate candidates.
Textile Museum in Thimphu will remain closed from 10th April to 10th May 2008. The museum is closed to change the exhibition, which has not seen mush change. The Museum would like to invite visitors to visit after the inauguration of the new exhibit titled “Power Dressing - celebration 100 years of Monarchy”.
In what is an entirely new cultural tour package, Rainbow Tours and Treks is taking tourists closer to nomadic herders of Merak and Sakteng in Trashigang.
In a symbolic opening of culturally rich villages of Trashigang like Radhi, Phongmey, Merak and Sakteng to tourists, the people of Merak and Sakteng came to Phongmey with their unique cultural heritage on April 7.
In an email sent out to all the Bhutanese tour operators, the Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO) announced the date and the agenda for the forthcoming annual general meeting.
The announcement email read as following:-
As per the decision of the 40th Executive Committee Meeting, the 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO), will be held on 23rd May 2008 at Taj Tashi Conference Hall. The 8th AGM which is traditionally scheduled in the beginning of each year has been postponed this year due to the Election.
The Immigration Authorities in Nepal have notified that henceforth all foreigners visiting Bhutan are required to present necessary visa clearance documents issued by the Department of Immigration, Bhutan without which they will be denied boarding. (As of now they have to show only at the Druk Air check in counter).
Litigation with a former staff, the loss of pilots and the resignation of the managing director does not seem to be the end of problems for Druk Air. The airline’s recent rescheduling of flights left 275 tourists stranded, hurting more than nine local tour operators.
On 10 April, 2008, Thimphu district court sentenced three men and a woman yesterday to prison terms ranging from 3 to 9 years in connection with the robbery of an American tour group in October last year.
Gem Dorji and Dorji had robbed a group of 13 American tourists of four bags containing four passports, US$ 4,836 (about Nu 191,022), Thai Bhat 1,490, Nu 52,000, a camera, a binocular, clothes and 18 ATM cards, together with important documents. The tourists had camped in Soe Yaksa, where the thieves slit through the unattended tents.
The Thimphu City Corporation (TCC) will be organising a mass clean up campaign in collaboration with some tour operators (who have shown keen interest and volunteer for this selfless act), Volunteers & Zone Representatives from Thimphu Throm on 5th April 2008 (Saturday) starting from Ngabi Ronchu (Babesa) to Pangrizampa (Dechencholing).
Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO) announces to all tour operators, the following up-coming travel fairs:
National Tourism Board / Bhutan Tourism Council established based on Executive Order issued by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 30th January 2008, has now been renamed as “Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB)”. The Council Members are: -