1. Provide a brief review of the state of tourism in Bhutan. How many tourists, long term growth pattern, main markets, main types of tourism. The reader needs to have a good feel for the nature of tourism there.
2. A (very) brief review of the problems facing tourism.
3. What is the principal challenge facing tourism? this is the key section. Provide evidence for this statement. You will need to find criteria with which to evaluate this and assess all the challenges using these criteria in order to identify what you consider to be the most important one.
4.How has the problem been addressed to date? if it such an important challenge it probably has been addressed so you need to assess what progress has been made towards overcoming it. What sort of policies were adopted? We must assume that the problem is ongoing and that these policies have failed.
5.Are policy makers affected by ideologies? Is the cause of the failure to solve the problem the result of the political ideology of the policy makers? What do they think caused the problem?
Suppose the problem is the absence of good infrastructure which is keeping tourists away. The government may believe that it is not their job to develop infrastructure but that the private sector should do so. Policy makers may therefore try to make the country attractive to business so that they will invest in infrastructure. This belief is a product of neo-liberal political ideology and that has informed the policy makers. Is this analysis right? If you think it is, then why has the problem remained?
Neo-liberalism and social democracy are the two key political ideologies. Is the
persistence of your problem the result of sticking to this approach? You need to show why you think that these politicizes belong to the ideological approach that you have selected. What has the government done to make investing more attractive and do you think this approach is correct? Has it solved the problem?
6. What about the other ideological approach? Do you think that it policy makers were to use that, they would be able to develop a more effective set of policies? In this section you need to think about these two ideologies. Which one do you think is more suitable for solving your country’s problem? You might agree with the government’s analysis but then you need to ask why has the policy not been successful since this is still a problem? Maybe you want to argue that the ideology is right but that the policies were not focussed enough. On the other hand you may disagree with this approach. You may think, for instance, that neo-liberal thinking was wrong and that the other one may be better.
Suppose you argue that the government should step in with the infrastructure investment giving your reasons. This would be a social democratic approach. Is it more suitable to your problem?
Could your country’s government develop a more suitable tourist infrastructure and then invite the private sector to get involved.
7. Recommendations. Decide which ideology you think is the most suitable for resolving your problem. Give some recommendations within the framework of one of the ideologies to suggest what should be done and why. With this example, was the government
right to try and make their country attractive to investors, or should they now try to find the ways of raising the money and developing the infrastructure themselves?
