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
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