Bhutan is a tiny Himalayan Kingdom where pursuit of happiness is a priority. This small Kingdom is known for being a happy country. In the early 1970s, the Fourth King introduced the development philosophy of Gross National Happiness, popularly known as GNH. GNH puts the responsibility to the government to create enabling environment to pursue happiness for the citizens. This means preservation of environment and tradition is key, while money is equally important.
Bhutan today has the world’s highest unclimbed mountain and probably, over 52% of the country is protected as protected area (pa) because of the importance of living in harmony with nature.
Democracy was only introduced recently with the King forcing it on the people. It is now a democratic constitutional monarchy with the Prime Minister as the head of the Government and the King as the head of the state.
Bhutan is regularly voted as one of the top destinations and even the seasoned travellers consider a privilege to visit and although it is voted as one of the top countries to visit, only a few privileged make it. Since 1974, when tourism was first opened, Bhutan followed ‘High value, Low volume’ tourism policy – ensuring the experience of tourist is not compromised and yet the locals are benefitted from tourism without negative impact.