Ed Sheeran announced this week that he can be taking his math trip to Bhutan, India and the Middle East in early 2025.

The tour, officially called +–=÷x Tour, features a notable stop in Bhutan's capital Thimphu on January 24, 2025 – in keeping with a press release announcing the concert, it’s going to be the primary major international concert to happen within the country.

Tickets went on sale on Saturdaywith the most cost effective tickets priced at 860 Bhutanese ngultrum ($10) already sold out. Other tickets for the concert at Changlimithang Stadium in Thimpu are priced at $30, $50, $70 and $100.

According to user rating website Ranker.com, the common price of an Ed Sheeran concert ticket is $167 Sheeran ranked second – after singer Pink – in reference to artists who’re “worth the price of admission.”

In contrast, tickets for Sheeran's performance in Singapore in February ranged from 88 to 488 Singapore dollars (US$65 to 363), in keeping with booking website Klook.

International participants, except Indian nationals, are required to use for a visa to enter Bhutan ($40) and pay the country's sustainable development fee during their visit, currently set at $100 for adults and $50 is ready for kids aged six to 12.

The fee is charged per person per day and is meant to guard our natural environment and supply free education and free healthcare to our residents, Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay told CNBC Travel in May.

After his performance in Thimphu, Sheeran will play six shows in India in February – within the cities of Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Shillong and Delhi – followed by shows in Qatar on April 30 and Bahrain on May 2.

The Bhutan performance is promoted by live entertainment firms AEG Presents and One Fiinix Live, in addition to Gelephu Mindfulness City, a 2,600 square kilometer city designed to function an economic and tourism gateway to Bhutan.

Master plans for the town, which is just not yet built, show a low- to mid-rise metropolis that can be built around a series of bridges and can house a brand new international airport, a university, an Eastern and Western medicine clinic, etc center and a hydroelectric power plant, in keeping with the plan.

The sustainable city, which goals to feed a population of a million people, goals to be the “greenest, cleanest and safest city” on this planet, in keeping with a press release announcing Sheeran's recent concert dates.

Sheeran launched the Mathematics Tour in 2022 and has performed 134 shows thus far. The tour is scheduled to finish in 2025.

Bhutan's government philosophy of “Gross National Happiness” is praised world wide for striking a balance between economic growth and the well-being of its residents.

But recent discussions about “Gross National Happiness 2.0” by its newly elected Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay suggest that change is afoot at some level as the country grapples with an economic crisis that has left it, as Tobgay said: “on the verge of collapse.”

The so-called GNH has been Bhutan's guiding principle since it was introduced by former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the early 1970s.

But with youth unemployment at almost 30% and About one in eight people lives in povertyHas Bhutan reached a point where its pursuit of national happiness must change?

“Yes and no,” Tobgay said in an interview with CNBC on May 10. “Yes, because we need to grow our economy.”

However, the principles of gross national happiness would not be abandoned, he added.

“Should we throw caution to the wind? No. We can grow, and we will grow in a balanced way.”

Bhutan will continue to strengthen its economy in a way that is sustainable, equitable and “balanced with social progress, environmental protection, cultural protection and good governance,” he said.

“We have been more successful in these areas than anyone could have imagined,” he said.

However, he also made it clear that the previous principle may have been too one-sided.

“We were extremely cautious, very conservative, and that's why we fell behind,” he said. “From one perspective, we didn't really fail. But should you take a look at the successes in the realm of ​​social progress, we failed economically.”

Tobgay also said that Bhutan was similarly cautious in its approach to tourism.

“We have been extremely cautious about opening as much as the remaining of the world by way of tourism,” Tobgay told CNBC. “We have been very conservative, very cautious.”

If Bhutan has made a mistake, it is on the side of sustainability and conservation, he added.

“We are currently paying for caution.”

Bhutan's tourism industry is recovering more slowly than other Asian countries. In 2023, international arrivals in the country will be one-third of 2019 levels.

The country has changed its controversial “sustainable development fee” three times since reopening in September 2022 – first raising it to $200 per adult per day, and then lower twice.

These changes have caused “a number of confusion,” Tobgay said. “As we speak, tourism is picking up again, but not at pre-pandemic levels.”

But despite the economic boost that mass tourism can bring, Bhutan is not deviating from its approach of high-quality, low-volume tourism, Tobgay told CNBC.

Today, the sustainable development fee is $100 per adult per day. However, Tobgay said, “To inform you the reality, I imagine many tourists are willing to pay $200 per day as a sustainable development fee.”

He said Bhutan continues to strive to boost tourism “while controlling the numbers.”

The country's emerging tourism industry is an opportunity to “create the sort of jobs that our capable, our very capable young people aspire to,” he said.

Thousands of young Bhutanese workers have left the country in search of employment opportunities abroad. according to ReutersIn the 11 months leading up to May 2023, about 1.5% of Bhutan's population migrated to Australia for work and vocational training alone, the report said.

“We hope that is a brief development … and provides us time to strengthen our economy through tourism, but additionally through other measures,” Tobgay said. “Then our youngsters will stay here, and those that work outside and have gained precious experience will return home.”