Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure / Sports

Tourism is one of the eight priority industries of the Gelephu Mindfulness City, and the national model it inherits is managed and high-value rather than high-volume. GMC has launched a Tourism Spark Fund with a set of investment opportunities, and the realistic near-term ventures are hospitality, experience operators and the cross-sell into the Health and Wellness and Spiritual pillars. Room stock, air access and seasonality remain constraints that resolve on the timetable of the planned international airport. A hotel or resort operator is formed under the Companies Act 2025 with a resident director and a GMC registered office, secures its site through the Economic Development Group on a long-term lease rather than by freehold purchase, and pays company tax at 15% under the Income Tax Act 2025 unless approved as a founders company before 31 December 2030. Hospitality employers with a rotating foreign workforce carry the duties of the Employment of Foreign Workforce Act 2025, including the occupier presumption and the register of foreign employees, and the Employment Act 2025 fixes salary timing, hours and rest days. The Customs Act 2025 provides for duty-free shops for tourists, and visitors travelling beyond GMC into the rest of the country are subject to Bhutan's own tourism and immigration rules. GMC has no tourism, hospitality or sports statute; leisure and sports ventures are governed by the same general framework.

Basnet Law Pte. Ltd. advises operators and investors on entity formation and priority-industry alignment, site leases and development terms with EDG, founders company applications, hotel management, franchise and construction contracts under GMC law, work passes and employment compliance, customs licences, and disputes.