Las Vegas also hits the 'BTS Jackpot'

BTS, Now a Platform: 'Permission to Dance On Stage - Las Vegas' Live
4 Shows, 200,000 Seats Sold Out in 1 Hour
ARMY Who Missed Tickets Enjoy Goods and Korean Culture at Popup Store
BTS Economic Impact Soars Over 5 Trillion KRW Annually
Space Management Challenges Remain; HYBE “Reviewing Improvements and Diverse Customer Demands”

BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE - LAS VEGAS. Photo by HYBE

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] “Trying on hanbok, it’s really beautiful. (Pointing to the palanquin) Is this pretty box a transportation device that people actually ride in? I’ve seen it on YouTube. My daughter is an ARMY, and today she came to Las Vegas for the BTS concert. It seems like it will be a joyful memory with the family.”

On the 9th (local time), Mr. Fine Doo (47), whom we met at the pop-up store outside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, USA, introduced that he came to Las Vegas from Phoenix, a city three hours away, with his daughter Caroline (17) and wife to see the group BTS’s performance.

On the 9th (local time), Fine Doo (47), whom we met at the BTS pop-up store outside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, USA, introduced that he came to Las Vegas from Phoenix, a city three hours away, with his daughter Caroline (17) and wife to see the group BTS's concert. Photo by Kim Heeyoon

The 'BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE - LAS VEGAS' held at Allegiant Stadium, which has a total capacity of 65,000 seats, sold 50,000 tickets excluding the stage installation area per show. The four performances held on the 8th-9th and 15th-16th, totaling 200,000 seats, were sold out in less than an hour after ticket sales opened.

On the day of the concert, tens of thousands of ARMYs who could not get tickets gathered near the venue along with the audience attending the performance. They bought goods at the pop-up store set up outside the stadium, enjoyed Korean traditional culture at the hanbok experience booth prepared by the Korea Tourism Organization, and visited the Samsung and Samyang Foods booths connected nearby to try Galaxy phones and Buldak Bokkeum Myun (spicy chicken noodles).

On the 7th (local time), BTS fans are taking commemorative photos at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, USA. Photo by Yonhap News

The pop-up store was evolving into a space where the ARMYs’ natural interest in BTS led to an introduction and experience of K-culture. At the site, Heo Hyun, head of the Digital Marketing Planning Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “Thanks to BTS’s consideration, who are usually very interested in promoting Korean tourism, the Korean promotion booth was placed closest to the goods sales booth, and more than 10,000 visitors experienced it daily. Korean tourism promotional videos were also broadcast on the stadium’s electronic billboard, expecting to reach 800,000 ARMYs worldwide, including online fans. We expect this to be a signal for the full-scale resumption of Korean tourism.”

HYBE conducted ‘The City’ project with the global hotel chain MGM Resort Group during the BTS Las Vegas concert to expand the artist’s performance beyond a one-time event into various events and city experience fan experiences. The fact that this interesting experiment took place in Las Vegas, known as the ‘world entertainment capital,’ where you can enjoy the best shows, hotels, and F&B (food and beverage), demonstrates BTS’s current economic influence and the attention of global companies.

Ahead of the BTS concert, on the 7th (local time), the phrase "Borahaegas" appeared on a digital billboard in downtown Las Vegas, USA. Photo by HYBE [Image source=Yonhap News]

On the day before the concert, the 7th, major electronic billboards in downtown Las Vegas, the airport control tower, and landmarks simultaneously displayed the message ‘BORAHAEGAS’ and were dyed purple. Also, the Bellagio Fountain Show, the world’s most famous fountain show, performed to BTS’s Butter and Dynamite every hour on the hour. The bibim guksu (mixed noodles), gimbap, and tteokbokki menus, which BTS members usually enjoy, were reinterpreted as course meals tailored to global fans’ tastes and presented at the Mandalay Bay Hotel’s pop-up restaurant. Fans who could not attend the concert in person could watch the performance live on screen at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Chris Baldizan, Vice President of MGM Resorts International, who attended ‘The City’ briefing on the 9th, said, “The Bellagio Fountain Show featuring BTS’s performance will continue even after the concert ends. The unique aspect of BTS is their passionate fandom, ARMY, so we focused on providing special experiences and memories that would bring them back to Las Vegas.”

On the 7th (local time), a fountain show held in sync with BTS's song took place at the Bellagio Hotel fountain in Las Vegas, USA. The Bellagio Hotel fountain show is a famous tourist attraction featuring music and media facades. Photo by Bellagio Hotel [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the local tourism industry in Las Vegas, since its opening in 2020, only six global musicians have held solo concerts at Allegiant Stadium, and all were one-time performances. BTS’s four-show concert is the first case. Due to the influx of fans visiting Las Vegas for the concert, MGM-affiliated hotels included in ‘The City’ project were fully booked early. A local industry official explained that the Las Vegas Tourism Board changed its official Twitter account name to ‘BORAHAEGAS’ and actively promoted BTS based on the economic effects within the city.

Despite the event operation utilizing city infrastructure, the lack of experience in managing their own spaces was pointed out as an area for improvement. The pop-up photo exhibition and exhibition hall set up on the outskirts of Las Vegas during the BTS concert received somewhat low satisfaction ratings from fans in terms of composition and completeness. Regarding this, Kim Taeho, HYBE’s COO in charge of operations and business, emphasized, “Through this event, we have identified areas for improvement and various customer demands, and based on this experience and know-how, we will focus on creating much more iconic moments.”

HYBE’s challenge, continuously pursuing business model innovation beyond entertainment, holds significance beyond success or failure as it is a case that combines label, solution, and platform capabilities. Especially as the global influence of major artists like BTS expands, the business promoted by the agency to expand fandom experiences such as ‘The City’ is also required to demonstrate high completeness and concrete economic impact indicators.

As of now, fewer than 10 musicians have held solo concerts at the Allegiant Stadium, which was completed in 2020 and has a seating capacity of 65,000, and all of them performed only once. In contrast, BTS is the only artist to have held concerts there for four consecutive times. The photo shows a panoramic view of Allegiant Stadium. Photo by Heeyoon Kim

Professor Kwon Sangjip of the Business Management Track, Department of Social Sciences at Hansung University, said, “The economic effect analyzed in 2018, the early days of the BTS craze, was 5.56 trillion KRW annually. Since then, they have topped the Billboard charts with ‘Dynamite,’ ‘Life Goes On,’ and ‘Butter’ as soon as they entered, which is a record that even The Beatles or Michael Jackson did not achieve. At the current stage where BTS’s influence has expanded, the effect must have increased further.”

Professor Kwon added, “So far, research on BTS’s economic ripple effect has been qualitative, and there are no papers registered in international academic journals. The reason is that the influence has expanded so much that economics, business, and cultural content fields need joint research, but data disclosure is closed. If HYBE, the agency, supports joint research by providing data to researchers in each field, it would be an opportunity to promote the influence of Korean cultural content worldwide, not an IP or security breach issue.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.