Bhutan River Industry Development

As part of an ongoing natural process we have been involved with the development of the river industry and training of river guides in Bhutan since 2011. Having first gone to Bhutan to map the river systems in 2006 by Royal invitation, this led to the start of river activities in the country as Bhutan opened up to tourism and there was a natural progression to add adventure activities for those that travelled there.

Timeline

• 2011 - The first Bhutanese guides came into Nepal to train with is on one of our 'International River Guide Training' (IRGT) programs.
• 2012 - We ran the first commercial multi day trip in Bhutan with the newly qualified guides.
• 2015  - We ran the first IRGT/Rescue 3 training course in Bhutan qualify more locals as river guides.
• 2015 - Consulation with the Department Of Tourism (DOT) to develop tge river industry in Bhutan, setting standards and policies including advising at a 2 day seminar.
• 2016 - Bought the first Stand Up Paddle boards into Bhutan and trained the same guides to operate this activity in addition to the already exsiting rafting and kayaking.
• 2018 - With the DOT we developed the first train the trainer programs to develop these first guides into trainers to expand the number of guides and make rafting self sustainable.
• 2024 - With a break due to covid for 3 years and decline in tourism in Bhutan, we eventually managed to run the first train the trainer program in Bhutan enabling 8 guides to become instructors and trainers in both IRGT river guiding and Rescue 3 technical water rescue. This was training was developed and funded by DOT and UNDP in Bhutan.
• Present - we still act as technical advisors to the TCB and audit current river operations every 2 years.

‍Overview‍

This long term work in Bhutan has seen us involved since the inseption of river activities in Bhutan, from exploring the first rivers, training the first guides in Nepal, running some of the first commercial trips in Bhutan, directing the first in country guide training programs right through to training in country trainers so that the whole industry is now self sustainable and set to grow.It was great to be a part of the evolution over so many years.