Help Sither Keep His Travel Business in Bhutan

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Bhutan, the World’s Happiest Place!

I hope you, your family and friends are well, keeping happy and healthy during this unprecedented period. COVID-19 has ruthlessly taken millions of lives and changed reality for so many of us.

Bhutan has been blessed to have had very few COVID-19 cases to date, thanks to the leadership of His Majesty The King, who holds the well-being of his subjects as his top priority. Our borders have been completely shut down to protect our citizens from the spread of COVID from the outside world. International flights to and from Bhutan remain very limited and until recently, there has been a 3-week mandatory quarantine requirement for all arrivals. However, these important precautionary measures have also had a devastating effect on our economy and on my business, which are so dependent on tourism.

In the past 19 months since our borders were closed, my travel company, Sithers’ Trek & Adventures Reserves, has been badly hurt by the travel restrictions put into place to keep Bhutanese citizens safe. We used to host around 90 guests a year, and since March 2020, this has fallen to zero. I also run Star Tourism Institute, training the younger generation of guides in our country, but demand for tour guide training, both cultural guiding, and trekking has been understandably low. As a result, this alternative revenue stream, which I hoped would enable me to share my experience, has not yielded the income I had hoped for.   

I come to you for help to keep my business going, to support my family and the core staff under my employment. Each member of my team is the sole breadwinner of their families, and I have managed to keep them in employment since the start of the pandemic, but this is increasingly challenging. My son and I run our travel business together, and the longer Covid restrictions continue, the more difficult it has been to support our loved ones and dependents. 

To keep my dreams, hopes, wishes alive, and to maintain my business, I am pre-selling vouchers that can be used to purchase tour packages when Bhutan re-opens to tourism. All vouchers are fully transferable, so buy for yourself or as a unique gift for friends, family, and/or loved ones. 

I am selling vouchers in increments of US$100, so you can purchase in denominations of US$100, US$200, US$300, and so forth. These vouchers will act as reservation deposits and be deducted from any tour packages you purchase from the company when Bhutan re-opens and we can welcome you back to our wonderful, unexplored home. 

My deep thanks in advance for your consideration and generosity. Once our borders are again open to the world, I look forward to sharing my decades of expertise with those who wish to experience the unique culture and pristine natural beauty of Bhutan.

Yours, 
Sither