BTS world tour sparks surge in travel searches for Seoul, Busan
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The spike in travel interest has also been felt well beyond Asia.
PHOTO: AFP
SEOUL – The announcement of BTS’ upcoming world tour has triggered a sharp rise in interest in South Korea as a travel destination, with searches for Seoul and Busan surging alongside the great demand for concert tickets.
According to accommodation platform Hotels.com, as cited by Big Hit Music, searches for trips to Seoul from overseas jumped 155 per cent within 48 hours of BTS unveiling its tour plans, compared to the previous week.
Interest in Busan
Big Hit Music added that domestic interest in Seoul and Busan surged, too. Searches by South Korean travellers rose 190 per cent for Seoul and 3,855 per cent for Busan during the same time period, according to data provided by Hotels.com to the agency.
The spike in travel interest has also been felt well beyond Asia.
In Brazil, news radio outlet BandNews FM highlighted BTS’ upcoming October concert in Sao Paulo as a major cultural event, citing data from local transportation platform ClickBus. According to the report, searches for bus tickets to Sao Paulo increased by more than 600-fold immediately after the tour announcement.
The surge in travel interest has coincided with BTS concert tickets selling out completely
BTS’ world tour kicks off April 9 at Goyang Stadium in Korea before heading to 34 cities for 82 shows, making it the largest-ever K-pop tour by a single act.
According to Big Hit Music, BTS will be the first Korean act to hold solo headlining concerts at several stadiums on this tour, including Sun Bowl Stadium and AT&T Stadium in Texas, Stanford Stadium in California, Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts and M&T Bank Stadium in Maryland.
Ahead of the tour, BTS will release its new album, “Arirang”, on March 20, featuring 14 tracks that “best embody BTS’ musical identity.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
