Building the Digital Home for Bhutan's First International Travel Mart

Client: Bhutan International Travel Mart (BITM)
Initiated by: Department of Tourism & Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO)
Scope: Website design & development
Live at: bitm.bt

A first of its kind for Bhutan

Every now and then a project comes along that is bigger than a website. The Bhutan International Travel Mart is one of them.

BITM is the Kingdom's inaugural travel trade event — the first time Bhutan will host the global tourism industry on its own soil, bringing tour operators, destination managers, hotel groups, airlines, and national tourism boards together over three days at Zhichenkhar, Thimphu, from 11–13 June 2026. Jointly organised by the Department of Tourism and the Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators, it is positioned to become an annual flagship platform for Bhutan's tourism engagement with the world.

When a project carries this kind of national significance, the website is not a brochure. It is the front door. For many international buyers and exhibitors, bitm.bt is the very first impression they will form of the event — and, by extension, of Bhutan's readiness to stand among the world's established travel marts. aBit was entrusted with designing and developing that front door, and it is one of the projects we are most proud of.

The challenge

A landmark event needs a website that does several things at once, and does them well.

It had to introduce a brand-new event to an international audience with no prior reference point — explaining clearly what BITM is, who it is for, and why it matters. It had to carry the weight and credibility expected of an event backed by government and a national industry association. It needed to convert interest into action by guiding three distinct audiences — exhibitors, buyers, and local specialised service providers — toward the right registration pathways. And it had to capture something less tangible: Bhutan's tourism philosophy of quality over quantity, of meaning over momentum, and of Gross National Happiness as a guiding framework.

All of this had to be ready ahead of the event's registration and promotion timeline, with content spanning multiple pages.

What aBit delivered

aBit designed and developed the complete bitm.bt website as a multi-page experience built to inform, persuade, and convert.

The site opens with a strong hero section establishing the event's identity, dates, and venue, paired with a live countdown to build anticipation, and headline figures — 30+ countries, 200+ exhibitors and destinations, 600+ travel professionals — that signal scale and ambition at a glance. From there, a structured set of pages carries the visitor deeper: an About section explaining BITM's mission, vision, and four delivering pillars; a Venue page introducing Zhichenkhar; a Schedule outlining the three-day arc of Connections, Commerce, and Discovery; and an FAQ to answer the practical questions of a first-time international audience.

Crucially, the site separates and channels its three audiences cleanly. Exhibitors, buyers, and local specialised service providers each have their own clear registration route, reducing friction and making sure every visitor knows exactly where to go.

Throughout, the design balances the credibility the event demands with the storytelling Bhutan deserves — partner and organiser logos for institutional trust, generous imagery and considered typography for atmosphere, and a clean responsive layout that works as well for a buyer browsing on a phone in another timezone as for an exhibitor at a desk.

The result

bitm.bt is now live and serving as the official digital platform for the event — the central point for information, credibility, and registration ahead of June 2026. It gives the Department of Tourism and ABTO a professional, world-class web presence worthy of a landmark national event, and it gives the international travel community a clear, confident first impression of Bhutan as a host.

For aBit, contributing to a first-of-its-kind moment in Bhutan's tourism story is exactly the kind of work we exist to do. When the world arrives at Zhichenkhar in June 2026, it will have arrived, in part, through a doorway we built.

Project summary

• Client: Bhutan International Travel Mart (BITM)
• Initiated by: Department of Tourism & Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO)
• Services: Website design & development
• Type: Multi-page event website with countdown, multi-audience registration routing, and responsive design
• Status: Live at bitm.bt

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