Ecotourism discourses in Bhutan: contested perceptions and values

Ecotourism has often been characterized and employed as a panacea for sustainable development. Bhutan, a small Himalayan kingdom, follows suit promoting ecotourism within the framework of Gross National Happiness (GNH), a home-grown development philosophy derived from a Buddhist ethic and Bhutanese values. The investigation of three ecotourism ventures in Bhutan provides ethnographic evidence of divergences from previous social and human–environment relations. These divergences are representative of an underlying neoliberal logic and discourse driving the ecotourism sector. Departing from conventional analyses of ecotourism that emphasize its material nature, we treat it as a discursive process that has critical sociocultural implications. Employing a dwelling perspective [Ingold, T. (2000). The Perception of the Environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge], we conceptualize evolving perceptions of Bhutanese communities that engage in the sector, finding that ambiguity related to the GNH concept allows a neoliberal logic to infiltrate local understandings and practices. Part of this entails promotion of a particular environmental subject [Agrawal, A. (2005). Environmentality: Technologies of government and the making of subjects. London: Duke University Press] that manifests in local people’s evolving perceptions of the environment.