Not since Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has a recording artist’s global sojourn triggered a maelstrom of activity quite like that of South Korean boy-band BTS’ ongoing Arirang.
Experts and industry watchers point out that the tour stands to earn up to US2 billion in total revenues by the time of the final curtain call at the last show of the tour on 14th March 2027 in the Philippines.
Think about it: this tour will feature a total of 88 performances globally, drawing in BTS’ massive global fanbase.
As the tour stops in 23 countries, nine of which are in Asia, fans who live in nations that aren’t tour stops are fuelling a surge in flight and hotel bookings to be able to get a piece of the action.
This phenomenon is referred to by experts as BTSnomics and this has a significant economic impact on cities where BTS will be performing.
This isn’t really new: we have seen similar surges in flight and hotel bookings during Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour and Taylor Swift’s Eras tour which resulted in detente between Singapore and other nations within Southeast Asia.
But the sheer scale and level of aggression with regard to both event marketing and fan activity could mean that the BTS tour could be one of the biggest of all time and its impact on global travel stands to change the concert tourism scene for good.
A boost in online searches
When the tour dates and locations were announced in January of this year, it triggered increased activity on online travel platforms (OTPs) not just in BTS’ home country but throughout the world.
As global accommodations booking platform Hotels.com reported about a week after the announcement, international searches for travel options for the 9th April kickoff in Seoul rose 155 percent within 48 hours of the tour announcement on 14th January.
Likewise, local search interest in Busan, which hosted the group’s anniversary concert last month, surged by an astounding 2,375 percent.
Meanwhile, overseas fans, especially those in Asia, drove online searches for trips to the South Korean city by several thousand percentage points.
In the months leading to the kick-off and anniversary events, domestic travel searches for Seoul and Busan ramped up significantly by 190 percent and 3,855 percent respectively.
Interestingly, the spike did not just affect travel into South Korea: in São Paulo, Brazil, regional transportation searches spiked over 600 times above normal baselines; similarly, Paris, France saw a 590 percent leap in travel demand tied to the band's comeback schedule.
BTS fans spend more for travel
It should be noted at this point that the financial contribution of a travelling BTS fan to the host economy is much higher than that of a conventional traveller for either leisure or business.
Consider the kick-off performance at Seoul’s Goyang Sports Complex: the three-night stint generated around US$37.3 million in total in terms of direct consumer spending per reports from Korea’s Hana Card and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute.
On average, foreign fans spend around US$1,248 on accommodations, local transport, dining, as well as retail (both fan merchandise and incidental purchases) during a tour stop.
As the most dedicated fans purchase an average of 2.1 tickets per person, they also stay longer in host cities, multiplying the local hotel and restaurant revenue.
Breaking records
Meanwhile, a report from Tourism Economics pointed out that BTS fans anywhere in the world have broken the global average in terms of tourist spending in local economies.
Consider how BTS’ limited engagement performances in Los Angeles and Las Vegas generated over US$260 million in tourist revenues over the four-day period.
On average, concert tourists tend to spend up to 3.4 times the price of their ticket at the concert location; but BTS fans go the extra mile, spending up to six times the price of the ticket to be able to travel overseas, dine, and shop before or after the performance.
Experts forecast that hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism revenue will be drawn into local economies throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia, packing flights, filling hotel capacities, and maximising local municipal tax revenues.
While some say that it is unlikely that BTS could match the economic impact that Taylor Swift’s Eras tour had, there can be no question that the seven boys from South Korea have caught the hearts of fans the world over and those fans are more than willing to spend to follow them just about anywhere.
