In March 2023, Taylor Swift embarked on her year-long commercially-acclaimed ‘Eras Tour’ that spanned 149 cities across 5 continents. With an estimated fanbase of over one billion ‘Swifties’, it’s no wonder high peaks in visitor arrivals were witnessed during her Australian leg that saw a jaw-dropping 558 Million AUD injection into the economy. Full flights, congested traffic and heavily-packed trains filled with inbound fans helped create a welcome revenue boost for the local tourism and hospitality industries. However, Australia wasn’t alone, as other places worldwide that were visited by the tour also reported higher occupancy records and enjoyed larger revenue streams than ever before from such events. From Air New Zealand adding 2000 extra seats to cater for the peak demand around her visit to even Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau requesting Swift to tour the country, one can’t help but acknowledge the significance of a fast-growing travel trend—music tourism.
What is Music Tourism?
Music tourism revolves around visiting a town or place to behold a musical performance such as a concert or fair. With the primary reason to watch artists and musicians perform live, music driven tourists also leverage the opportunity to explore the destination where the event is being held, helping contribute to the unique traveller experience that they wish to have, and helping generate revenue for the local hospitality industry.
Music-focused travel has increasingly become popular over the years, particularly noticed by the growing number of attendants at major headlining events such as Glastonbury, TomorrowLand and the Montreux Jazz Festival. From humble beginnings of smaller jazz halls, to backstage passes, sold out arenas, premium ticket prices, and now a trend of people travelling to attend shows, concert culture has considerably evolved over the years.
Driving Forces of Music Tourism
The global music tourism market is expected to grow exponentially with statistics projecting a market value of over $13 Billion USD by 2032. So what are the factors that are driving its growing popularity?
Music Festivals
Festivals such as Glastonbury and Tomorrowland are known for raking in high attendance figures compared to other shows. These events generally feature more than one artist and therefore attract a larger demographic of audiences, providing significant shifts to the local economy through travel numbers to, and from, the venue. This overall drives higher attendance rates and establishes music festivals as a must-visit for travelers around the world.
Experiential Tourism
Music tourism isn’t just about concerts. Shifts in consumer preferences mean that travellers are wishing to pursue unique and unforgettable experiences which can often be fostered through the ambient and ecstatic sensation of live music settings. Such authentic experiences are simply not the same through virtual platforms. Even annual events including the Carnival of Brazil encompass street festivities and help draw in almost 500,000 foreign travellers annually. This helps attract travelers who seek a more diverse range of preferences and interests.
Social Media Travel Marketing
Through shared experiences of influencers and promos climbing up algorithms, digital technology is a primary driving force that helps propel music tourism to its popularity. With the array of shared experiences of attendees, and event information available online for the public, music events and concert culture can reach mass audiences faster than ever before and influence travel decisions.
The Importance of Music Tourism
Music tourism is important, not just for traveller satisfaction and experience but for an array of other reasons.
It’s a Driver of Economic Growth
The significant economic impact that can arise from music tourism cannot be ignored. Concerts and music festivals help drive economic growth for the host destination as travellers will need to spend on accommodation, transport and food. As demonstrated by Swift’s Eras Tour, this provides a great revenue boost to the local tourism and hospitality industries.
If you are a first-time visitor flying in for a music event, you will most likely leverage the opportunity to do some exploration and sight-seeing while you can. Visits to local attractions, cultural sites and popular venues from concert goers can guarantee more income into local businesses and communities who will also be benifitted.
Promotes Wellbeing
There is an emotional synergy that forms this basis. The connection between travel and music has always been emotionally interconnected by nature. Music has the overall ability to compliment one’s visit as it helps provide a motive for them to travel in the first place. Some music festivals, for instance, may also be held in remote or unexpected locations. This further adds to the unique and immersive experiences that music travellers wish to have when visiting.
Fosters Multicultural Relationships and Bonding
In addition, Music festivals and concerts also help promote cultural exchange as it helps unite people from different backgrounds together and can lead to long lasting relationships formed. This signifies how music tourism can also play a role in providing people a foundation to breaking cultural barriers.
Music tourism will certainly grace us for many years to come with a promising outlook. Unpacking the components that drive it such as the growing consumer shift towards prioritising unique-immersing experiences and iconic music festivals allow us to appreciate the role that it plays in also generating revenue for a host destination’s local economy and encouraging cultural exchange. With notable shifts in traveler preferences towards more unique and unforgettable experiences, music tourism helps put the icing on the cake by uniting the love of music and exploration into one.
