The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Druk Holdings and Investment (DHI) is entering the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) tourism space in collaboration with an international company called G 9 Investments.
The company formed is the Bhutan Global Mindfulness & MICE Holdings and Pvt Limited (BGMMH).
This company is registered in Singapore through the DHI subsidiary office there and G 9.
A DHI official said that right now the company is looking at building video content to showcase the Bhutanese way of life and for Bhutanese Mindfulness to go global and create a foot print in terms of global online content.
The next stage is to organize MICE events in Bhutan to let the online mindfulness translate into physical mindfulness in Bhutan.
The G 9 company is a fund that supports early stage companies that empower consumers to live, look and feel better.
It has investments in Biotechnology, AI, IT, E-Commerce, Healthcare, Wellness, Fitness, Fashion companies.
The DHI official said the initial goal is building online content as an internet production company. He said DHI will be investing in building a global presence and in a way branding the country.
The aim is to create content that resonates globally and also caters to the huge mindfulness community online. It will also see what content can be curated and what content can sell.
The content could be as simple as a simple walk in the forest with commentary or a virtual walk to Taktsang or a football match. G 9 brings forte in online marketing while DHI will be the majority owner of the company.
In short it is about using the power of the online to leverage MICE tourism.
When asked if tour operators will see this as competition from DHI in the tourism space the DHI official said DHI is not competing with tour operators and instead tour operators should see this as an opportunity as more tourists will come to Bhutan.
He said it is also an opportunity as the company is building online video and also physical content and will have information on the economy, SDF, tourism etc.
The online content will be based on whatever the global interest about Bhutan is which is about happiness or mindfulness and also have conferences here.
The DHI said the tourists brought in through this initiative will help the local economy.
The DHI official said that depending on what content resonates globally there can be physical MICE conferences held in Bhutan.
The company has been registered around two months ago. It will also take the help of international online channels to distribute content.
In the latest proposal, the Tourism Department is proposing to give 5 nights and 6 days for SDF free MICE tourism, not including the arrival and departure days.
MICE tourism could not be implemented yet due to the absence of strong Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and the need to enhance the immigration website to give the SDF free MICE tourism option.
