Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| BTS Courtesy of Big Hit Entertainment |
By Park Ji-won
Concerts held in Korea by BTS, while on their 2019 world tour, were the most popular shows for foreign fans, data from an online ticket reservation site showed, amid rising tickets sales among overseas fans.
Interpark said Friday that the K-pop sensation's Korean concerts, part of the band's "BTS World Tour Love Yourself: Speak Yourself-The Final," secured top place among other shows, according to the number of tickets sold through its English, Chinese and Japanese websites.
The boy group held concerts worldwide and finished up its tour in Seoul. BTS dominated the list its "5th Muster Magic Shop" concert in Busan was the second most popular among English-speaking fans followed by "5th Muster Magic Shop" shows in Seoul.
Other K-pop boy bands' concerts ― AB6IX 1st World Tour "6IXENSE" in Seoul and 2019 NU'EST Concert "Segno" in Seoul ― were also among the top-selling events among international ticket purchasers.
More foreign fans have been buying tickets for concerts in Korea in recent years.
Sales increased 34 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year; and the data also showed that 58.8 percent of those who purchased tickets through the English website in 2018 spent more money in 2019. For the Japanese and Chinese websites, the numbers were 20.6 percent and 22.2 percent, respectively.
Among overall ticket sales on the foreign language websites, 40.5 percent were from the English website, followed by the Japanese site with 38.1 percent and the Chinese version, 21.3 percent.
By genres, 78.9 percent of those using the English website bought concert tickets while 19.8 percent bought tickets for musicals. On the Japanese website, the numbers were 58.1 percent for musicals and 40.1 percent for concerts. From the Chinese website, 84.3 percent bought concert tickets and 15.1 percent bought musical tickets.
"The Promise of the Day," a musical commissioned by the South Korean Army starring idol stars from EXO, SHINee, Wanna One, VIXX and INFINITE, was the most popular musical among fans buying from the English website; while "The Shinheung Military Academy," another military musical, starring actor Ji Chang-wook was the most popular among Chinese people. "Excalibur" starring XIA was most popular among Japanese nationals.
"Sales of tickets to foreign fans have been gradually growing in recent years. It is inspiring to see the sales not only from neighboring countries like Japan and China but even from people on other continents," Park Na-ra, an official at Interpark, said in the press release. "We expect that the musical genre will also become more popular if it can overcome the language barrier as the shows have a lot of great actors who are lauded among foreign directors."
