Within us and among us

This is a Bhutanese Story of Four Friends

An elephant, a monkey, a hare, and a bird, perched acrobat-fashion one on top of the other, standing under a tall tree laden with fruit. The fable tells of how the elephant, though strong and mighty, needs the agile monkey to help him reach the fruit on the tree. But, there would be no tree if the bird hadn’t eaten a seed to begin with and then deposited it on the soil in its droppings; and the seed would not have grown into a tree had the hare not protected and nurtured its roots underground.

This Bhutanese fable, as told by Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, the former Queen of Bhutan in her book, “Treasures of The Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan” is illustrated in Bhutanese paintings, wood carvings, and fabric.The elephant, the monkey, the hare, and the bird symbolize, respectively, the four terrestrial habitats – the ground, the air, the underground, and the sky - all of which tourism has been a part of. We draw from this fable, a reminder to value inter-connections and cooperation among ourselves to strive for a better tourism academy, and subsequently inspire hopeful forms of tourism. Some Bhutanese people will tell you that the four friends represent the important qualities we should have within ourselves: strength (elephant), wisdom (hare), speed (monkey) and vision (bird). It is our hope that the discussions, dialogues, reflections and friendships arising from this conference strengthen your four friends. We have designed the conference format to try and facilitate this. Here's a sneak preview to some of our ideas!

Brain dates

Similar to speed-dating, the aim of this session is to match you with other scholars with the same research interests as yours, and/or those working on a project you could be a part of. The ultimate goal is for delegates to walk away from this sesson having made some meaningful connections with people they're likely to be successful and happy working with. We will provide you with some publication outlets and ideas to get you going!

The solution room

We bring in the local tourism stakeholders in Bhutan to present you with their challenges. You brainstorm potential solutions with them, based on your research and knowledge expertise. The aim of this session is threefold: for industry and academia to learn from each other; for academic research to 'stay real'; and to introduce academics to the world of consulting for industry.