Boon in tourists for Bhutan

and the Tourism Council crunched the numbers:

Excerpt:

?A total of 27,020 dollar paying tourists flew into the country last year, increasing the arrivals by 15 percent, the same percent decline the industry experienced in 2009 from the global recession.

Tourist arrivals of 2010 appears to be the second highest in the last decade.

The highest number of tourist arrivals so far was in 2008, with 27,636 tourist arrivals.

From the arrivals last year, Bhutan earned a royalty of more than USD 11.5M, which is roughly more than Nu 50,31,42620.

Revenue from visa fees alone amounted to USD 540,900.

The country, however, saw 40,873 "high-end tourists" visiting the country last year, including regional tourists as well as those coming for conferences and business.

Tourism council of Bhutan officials said they far exceeded the target of 35,000 tourists for the year. It also defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than 24 hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes."