In 2008, the traditionally reclusive nation of Bhutan opened its doors a bit wider to the world, but vowed to protect its traditional values by exercising caution regarding the negative influences of globalization.

Bhutan held its first democratic elections in March for a new parliament and prime minister—over a year after King Jigme Singye Wangchuk willfully abdicated the throne to his son, ordered an end to absolute royal rule, and transitioned the country towards a constitutional monarchy. The newly crowned King Jigme Khesar was educated in the west and is credited for ushering in satellite TV to the nation.

A small, landlocked Himalayan country with approximately 600,000 citizens, Bhutan has always approached development and the influx of foreign influences cautiously. In 1972, while other developing nations focused on increasing their GDP, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk declared Bhutan’s development would be measured by Gross National Happiness (GNH).

Having seeing the negative impacts of mass tourism to its neighbor Nepal, the government implemented a policy of controlled and manageable tourism where all visitors (except of Indian nationality) must pay a fixed all-inclusive rate per day of their visit. Independent travel is not permitted in Bhutan. This policy continues to keep the financial return on tourism high and the social and cultural impacts low.

Bhutan’s development efforts were further encouraged by a recent UNDP report that revealed the country is on target with achieving the Millennium Development Goals to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.

Despite its recent steps to modernize, King Jigme Khesar stressed at his coronation that the country will continue to measure development by Gross National Happiness (GNH) and not lose the “Bhutanese character” as the world changes so that future generations will live in happiness and peace.

However, as tourism continues to become a progressively viable source of income for a country where unemployment has tripled in the past three years, it will be a challenge for the new government and king not to consider modifying its tourism policies to generate more jobs in this sector.