Bhutan strongly adheres to a policy of ‘High-Value, Low-Impact tourism’ guided by the doctrine of Gross National Happiness (GNH) to make Bhutan a high-end tourist destination. In Bhutan, the tourism industry contributed about US$ 79.87 million in 2017 making it one of the most important economic contributors. However, rural communities are not equally benefitting from tourism activities due to less tourism development. The main objective of this article was to evaluate the opinion of the
community towards the opportunities of the village homestay programme. The study was conducted within a small nomadic community in Soe which is located in the North-West of Bhutan. This paper was a qualitative study based on in-depth semi-structured interviews which were limited to twenty key
informants due to the small size of the community. Data were analysed with a content analysis approach. The study found that there was some mixed opinion towards the concept of the village
homestay programme in the community. The majority of the key informants, particularly the males, expressed quite a strong support for the concept of the village homestay programme. The findings revealed that the male key informants consider that the development could generate additional revenue, enhance health and sanitation and requires less investment for the development. On the other hand, the female key informants expressed some what negative opinions towards the concept of the village homestay programme. The key reasons include lack of experiences in tourism, workloads and the general safety of the women. In spite of varied opinion towards the concept, it was found that the majority of the key informants were very supportive of the development of the village homestay programme and were thus able to see the positive benefits and a good future for the village homestay programme in Soe community
