All members of the K-pop boy group BTS have officially completed their military service, and after four years, they are reuniting for a world tour. Immediately after the news broke, accommodation prices in the tour’s host cities surged.
BTS is to perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium for three consecutive days in late November. Although ticket prices and sale dates have not yet been announced, hotel bookings for those three days have already skyrocketed.
The Busan leg of the BTS tour is to be held in June, coinciding with the anniversary of the group’s debut. Therefore, local demand for accommodation was exceptionally high. Luxury hotels generally raised their rates by two to three times, and some motels even inflated prices 10-fold, prompting South Korean President Lee Jae-myung to publicly condemn price gouging on social media.
The hospitality industry is the primary beneficiary of concert-driven economic activity worldwide. Pop superstar Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2024, which broke ticket sale records in multiple countries, drew more than 750,000 fans to eight shows at Wembley Stadium, causing average hotel prices in London to increase by 150 percent.
Similarly, British band Coldplay made a significant impact during their 2024 tour in Australia. Hotel prices in Melbourne rose by an average of more than 80 percent, while Sydney saw increases of more than 60 percent. Concert-driven economic activity clearly provides a powerful boost to the revenues of local hospitality industries.
The free market pricing mechanism flexibly adjusts to both supply and demand. Similar to many products where there is a significant gap between the list price and the selling price, hoteliers often submit their room rates to authorities with a wide reference range. This allows them to adopt flexible, dynamic pricing strategies. When demand rises, prices tilt toward the upper end of the approved range — when it falls, heavy promotions and discounts are common. As long as room rates do not exceed the approved range, there are no legal issues. When regulatory authorities conduct inspections, they usually only catch a few opportunistic businesses who are then fined.
Tickets and accommodations can be outrageously overpriced, and fans who do not want to be exploited vote with their feet. Smooth crowd-dispersal routes and more frequent public transportation schedules make it quite easy to spill over to nearby cities — for concerts in Kaohsiung, traveling south to Pingtung County or north to Tainan is very convenient. It is not difficult to find accommodation at reasonable prices. Some even take the high-speed rail for a same-day round trip. Many fan groups also voluntarily charter tour buses to return home.
Take October’s concert by K-pop girl group Blackpink as an example — with the show ending before 9pm, attendees could reach Zuoying high-speed rail station within an hour, making it much easier to find alternative transportation options. Sky-high hotel prices deterred tourists from staying overnight in Kaohsiung, meaning they did not contribute to local spending. Overall, such high rates proved counterproductive.
Local hotels should not focus shortsightedly on just one night of business. By offering discounted accommodation packages for the days before and after concerts, they could entice visitors to stay in the city longer, which would in turn boost the overall economic output of the tourism, restaurant and retail sectors.
Chen Yung-chang is a freelance writer based in Taipei.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
In the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. As expected, bilateral trade emerged as a major priority for the new Trump administration. To secure a favorable trade deal with Taiwan, it adopted a two-pronged strategy: First, Trump accused Taiwan of “stealing” chip business from the US, indicating that if Taipei did not address Washington’s concerns in this strategic sector, it could revisit its Taiwan
In a stark reminder of China’s persistent territorial overreach, Pema Wangjom Thongdok, a woman from Arunachal Pradesh holding an Indian passport, was detained for 18 hours at Shanghai Pudong Airport on Nov. 24 last year. Chinese immigration officials allegedly informed her that her passport was “invalid” because she was “Chinese,” refusing to recognize her Indian citizenship and claiming Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet. Officials had insisted that Thongdok, an Indian-origin UK resident traveling for a conference, was not Indian despite her valid documents. India lodged a strong diplomatic protest, summoning the Chinese charge d’affaires in Delhi and demanding
Immediately after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) “Justice Mission” exercise at the end of last year, a question was posed to Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal regarding recent developments involving the exercises around Taiwan, and how he viewed their impact on regional peace and stability. His answer was somewhat perplexing to me as a curious student of Taiwanese affairs. “India closely follows developments across the Indo-Pacific region,” he said, adding: “We have an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region, in view of our significant trade, economic, people-to-people, and maritime interests. We urge all concerned
In the past 72 hours, US Senators Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan and Ruben Gallego took to social media to publicly rebuke the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the defense budget. I understand that Taiwan’s head is on the chopping block, and the urgency of its security situation cannot be overstated. However, the comments from Wicker, Sullivan and Gallego suggest they have fallen victim to a sophisticated disinformation campaign orchestrated by an administration in Taipei that treats national security as a partisan weapon. The narrative fed to our allies claims the opposition is slashing the defense budget to kowtow to the Chinese
RSS