How Travel Agents and Press Apply for a Bhutan FAM Trip

Every few weeks we are asked some version of the same question by an agent or a journalist: can you host a familiarisation trip, and can the fee be waived. The answer is yes and no, and the distinction matters, so here is how a Bhutan FAM trip actually works.

The short version: the waiver is granted by Bhutan’s Department of Tourism, not by us. We apply on your behalf as your licensed local operator, and the government decides. Anyone telling you they can approve it themselves is describing something other than the official programme.

What is being waived, and what is not

Bhutan currently charges a Sustainable Development Fee of USD 100 per adult per night, a reduced rate that applies until 31 August 2027. It funds free healthcare, free education, and the forests that keep the country carbon negative. It is the reason Bhutan has stayed the way it is, and it is not a fee anyone waives casually.

For approved familiarisation and press visits, the Department of Tourism can waive it. Two things are not waived:

• Visa fees. You pay your own, and you apply yourself or we can apply on your behalf.
• Monument fees. Entry to dzongs, temples and museums is still charged.

Partners, friends and children travelling with you are not eligible for the waiver either. They pay the standard rate.

Who qualifies

Three categories, and the government is specific about each.

Travel agents and tour operators. The programme is for international agents who want to sell and promote Bhutan. Applicants must hold a management position in sales or product, with a clearly defined job title. Your company needs a working website or, if it has none, social media pages, and the Department expects those pages to have at least 10K followers and to actively promote Bhutan. The Department assesses you on your business profile, the quality of your existing marketing, your reputation in your market, what you have already sold for Bhutan, and what you could realistically sell.

Journalists and media. Print, digital, broadcast and social. The Department approves those who are, in its own words, credible, high profile and relevant, and who will produce a meaningful amount of coverage.

Content creators and KOLs. Assessed on whether your audience is genuinely a Bhutan audience, and on whether your work helps tell what the Department calls the hidden stories of the destination. Follower should be at least 10k.

Tour leaders are not eligible. Bhutan has skilled guides of its own and wants Bhutanese hosting visiting groups. If you lead groups but also sit in an agency’s sales or product team, you would apply in that capacity instead.

How long you can stay

Seven nights, if you are entering from western Bhutan and travelling within Thimphu, Paro, Punakha and Chhukha. If you enter from the east, the same seven nights apply within Samdrup Jongkhar, Pema Gatshel, Trashigang and Trashi Yangtse.

Up to fifteen nights is possible if your itinerary reaches beyond those districts.

FAM and press visits run year round.

What you commit to in return

A waiver is granted against marketing you agree to deliver and this is the most important for the Department.

For agents, the SOP asks you to deliver at least three activities from its list: prominent promotion of Bhutan on your website, a newsletter to your database, social posts tagging the Department of Tourism, a hosted dinner or event about Bhutan, a webinar for your clients or agents, digital marketing spend, or inclusion in your brochures and other marketing material. You can also propose an activity of your own.

For press and creators, the commitment is the coverage itself, published in outlets that reach people who might actually travel to Bhutan.

Two consequences follow. Your host operator must send the Department a report after your visit, with photos, links and the places you went. And anyone found abusing the system is blacklisted from future FAM trips, while an operator caught abusing it can lose their business licence.

We mention this not to be discouraging but because it is the honest shape of the arrangement. It is a working agreement between a small country and the people who write about it.

How the application works

Applications go to the Department of Tourism through a licensed Bhutanese operator or hotel. You cannot apply alone.

The Department reviews your application and replies by email within seven working days of receiving a complete application. Send it at least one month before you travel. The same person can take a FAM trip only twice a year, and your host must be a hotel or tour operator certified by the Department of Tourism.

Where we fit: if we think a visit makes sense for both of us, we prepare and submit the joint application, host you in country, and forward your published coverage to the Department afterwards. The decision itself is not ours. We have no influence over it.

The official Standard Operating Procedures are published by the Department of Tourism and worth reading before you apply. Questions can go directly to famtrip@tourism.gov.bt or presstrip@tourism.gov.bt.

If you would like to come

We host a small number of trade and press guests each season, because doing it properly takes the same attention as any other journey and we would rather do a few well.

If you sell Bhutan, write about it, or are thinking of doing either, tell us about your work and what you have in mind. Our team in Thimphu reads every application and replies personally.