Korean supergroup Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS) is now running the South America leg of their landmark reunion tour Arirang which kicked off back in April and has since generated revenues of over US$500 million as of 1st October.
Back in July, we pointed out how this pop cultural phenomenon triggered a significant increase in online searches on platforms like Agoda and Klook in a phenomenon referred to by experts as BTS-nomics.
But now, it seems that the tour has had a multiplier effect for key locations, improving each one’s tourism revenues by significant factors within the course of 24 to 72 hours.
In this feature, we consider the figures and what this would mean for global concert tourism by the time this tour ends in March 2027.
What came before
Consider this: before the tour began in April of this year, Hotels.com reported that international searches for travel to Seoul for the Goyang kick-off performance went up by 155 percent within 48 hours of the tour announcement on 14th January from the previous week.
Likewise, search interest for Busan, which hosted Festa, the group’s official annual fan festival, surged by 2,375 percent.
The Busan figures were bolstered further in key Asian markets, particularly Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, where searches for the Korean secondary city went up by several thousand percent.
There was also a notable spike in domestic inquiries, going up 190 percent for Seoul and 3,855 percent for Busan.
In a report dated 13th April of this year, Korean broadcasting network Arirang’s correspondent Park Jun-hang reported that the tour was the largest ever by any K-pop act in the history of the country’s music industry.
Park said: “BTS is visiting 34 cities for a total of 85 shows as part of the group's world tour which is projected to generate at least US$1 billion in direct revenue for the group's agency HYBE and have a multi-billion-dollar impact on the global economy.”
What we know now
Lighthouse lead for content Jonathan Gough pointed out how global hotel / accommodations demand has surged since the initial announcement of the tour, with year-on-year increases going as high as 200 percent.
According to Gough the markets which have seen the biggest range of increase have, surprisingly, been those with constrained room supply.
In Europe, these were Brussels which saw an increase of 97 percent and Munich where demand was up by 94 percent; Paris registered a more modest seven percent.
In North America, Tampa demand was up 82 percent, while a 66 percent increase was seen in Baltimore.
What is even more interesting is that the group is playing in towns and cities that are not usually visited by global acts.
Consider the case of the Texas city of El Paso which only has 102 active hotels: the group’s two-night residency generated an economic impact worth US$75 million.
Keep in mind that this is 1,600 times the city’s 2023 per capita annual income.
According to Outlook Respawn’s Diya Mukherjee: “Hotels located up to two hours from the event venue were fully occupied, with some operators highlighting that the situation led to the first total sell-out in 35 years. The demand was so acute that many residents allowed their homes to be turned into lodging facilities.”
It’s also notable that fan spending during the two-day sortie surpassed the US$34.7 million generated by Coldplay’s two Sun Bowl Stadium concerts back in June 2025.
As Destination El Paso executive director Brooke Underwood put it: “BTS is one of the paramount events for this community. We all are benchmarking this with Coldplay. There are a lot of similarities, and there are ways the BTS impact will be felt stronger and maybe a little bit longer.”
At the same time, Suh Jungho, project director of the Korean Management Institute at The George Washington University, pointed out that the four performances the group staged in Las Vegas generated approximately US$340 million.
Furthermore, major hubs like Los Angeles and Las Vegas saw elevated demand for local transportation throughout the duration of the group’s stays.
The tour’s recent sojourn in Bogota, Colombia last week generated an estimated US$38.7 million USD in local tourism spending, generating 5,244 jobs for those from the surrounding communities.
As of press time, the septet is currently in Lima, Peru, their first performance in the country and where their impact on the local economy is projected to be worth US$58.1 million.
What’s coming up
It is interesting to note that, because Arirang is BTS’ first real tour as a complete unit following their mandatory two years in military or civil service, the tour works more like a travelling economic catalyst rather than a conventional slate of concerts.
Indeed, the tour stands to earn up to US#1.8 billion in total revenues even without factoring in external fan spending on transportation and accommodations.
As Arirang progresses toward its Asia/Oceania leg, analysts and tourism professionals are already weighing in on its potential impact.
For Hong Kong, experts at CBRE foresee a major hospitality boom as local hotels brace for a surge similar to that seen for Goyang in terms of bookings and premium pricing.
Singapore, on the other hand, will be the venue for HYBE’s city-wide THE CITY campaign this December where fans take over the urban grid with official pop-up stores, themed dining collaborations, branded transportation, as well as dedicated fan zones.
Also, as early as January, key locations in Asia have reported extreme booking compression as fans have reserved hotel inventories months in advance.
Indeed, for East Asian stops like Tokyo and Kaohsiung, short-term rentals hit 60 percent capacity up to five months ahead of the scheduled concert dates.
We honestly cannot help but marvel at the impact a seven-member idol group from Korea is having on the global travel ecosystem.
However, there must be more than a grain of truth in what BTS rapper/producer Min Yoongi (SUGA) said in a past interview: “Once you go to a BTS concert, you can’t go anywhere else.”
