The following was written by TiqIQ, a leading online ticket search engine listing both primary and secondary tickets. They are an authority on ticket data analysis and trends.
In today’s world, it seems as though no sporting event, concert or performance is just a local event. Fans from all over the globe travel far and wide to watch their favorite performer, team, or group at venues all around the planet.
This can be stated as fact rather than opinion thanks to international ticket reseller Ticketbis, which has developed an interactive data visualization representing cross-border ticket sales. The movement tracked is for major sports, music, and theatre events that influenced international travel over the past three years.
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The data visualization, called “Fans on the Move,” has analyzed over 16,000 events from its inception. The ticket buying data that provides the core of the graphics tells us that between 2012 and 2013, international ticket sales on the platform increased by 53.2%, and between 2013 and 2014 they increased by 61.8%. As such, between 2012 and 2014, the amount of people consuming events while traveling abroad has increased by 82%. Sports, concerts, and the venues they’re held in have entered a lot of people’s sightseeing lists.
It makes sense that tourists would want to travel to the United States in order to see events that they cannot see in their own country. Sports like the NFL and NBA, as well as Broadway musicals, are some of the most popular events attended. When it’s a major event such as the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals, the number of international travelers grows even larger. Same thing goes for when Americans travel to European cities. Americans show a preference for traveling to see the highest quality soccer matches in person rather than international basketball, for example. English Premier League and Champions League matches have a well-sized percentage of ticket sales from people in the United States.
For instance, when the 2014 World Cup was held in Brazil last year, almost half of ticket sales were generated from outside the country. Argentina, actually, led the way with 13 percent of sales despite being considerably far away the World Cup-hosting nation. Mexico, the U.S., Chile, and France were the four top countries behind Argentina in that regard, albeit at significantly less percentages, but it says something about how people from these distant countries are willing to travel such a monumental distance just to attend a sporting event.
Another prime example of this is last year’s Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. In this instance, the majority of ticket sales were generated outside of Portugal, which was where the title game was held, as Spain easily topped all outside countries in ticket revenue with 38.9 percent of sales coming from there. Brazil, France, England, and the United States were the countries behind them.
Tourists have also made it a point to see their favorite band or artist while traveling around a foreign country. Of the top 10 events from the data visualization, four of them are in the music genre. First on the list is Roger Waters in March 2012 in Buenos Aires. Of total sales, 18.5% of tickets came from Brazilian buyers. Taylor Swift was third on the list for her San Diego show in 2012, and fifth was the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, London in July 2013. Of all Rolling Stones sales, 62.2% came from outside the UK, including five countries – Germany (17.4%), Spain (8.7%), Argentina (8.7%), Portugal (8.7%), and Austria (4.3%) – that comprised much of that number. One Direction was 10th on the list for their tour stop in Miami in October 2014. Fans understand that this may be the only, or last, time a certain legendary band or pop icon visits a country so the event becomes something they have to see.
Fans on the Move will have an impact on advertisers for major events in the near future as they better understand the international audience they are attracting. The audience at an entertainment sporting event or concert is as spread out as it’s ever been and companies will know how to target them in a different way now that they can better track that data.