[The Homeland of K-pop Without a Home] "World Tours Exist, but No Stage in Seoul"

Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong Compete with 50,000-Seat Arenas
Most K-pop Star Concert Revenue Generated Overseas
"Concert Venues Are Now Industrial, Not Just Cultural, Infrastructure"

Countries around the world are actively expanding investments in large-scale venues, viewing the global concert industry-including K-pop-as a new growth engine. In contrast, although Korea has grown into the world's third-largest music market, it faces the paradoxical situation where a lack of domestic concert infrastructure leads to concert revenue and tourism spending flowing overseas.

Major cities such as Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong have completed large arenas with capacities of 50,000 seats, entering a fierce competition for dominance in the Asian concert market. Tokyo Dome in Japan holds around 80 large-scale concerts annually, generating tourism consumption worth approximately 1 trillion won. Since its opening in 2014, Singapore Sports Hub has hosted world tour stages by BTS, Coldplay, and Taylor Swift, emerging as a hub for concerts in Southeast Asia.

Hong Kong's Kai Tak Sports Park attracted 200,000 people over four days with a concert by the band Mayday immediately after its opening this year, and subsequently hosted concerts by NCT Dream and Seventeen. On the 28th and 29th, CJ ENM's popular music awards ceremony, the MAMA Awards, will also take place there. The Hong Kong government invested a staggering 30 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 5.6 trillion won) in this project.

These cities define large-scale concerts as a "tourism export industry." Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry analyzed that "large-scale concerts are a core cultural industry that directly contributes to GDP when considering secondary consumption such as accommodation, transportation, and dining." The Singaporean government also highlighted that 35% of concert ticket buyers are foreigners, stating, "Expanding concert infrastructure is directly linked to strengthening national brand assets."

NCT DREAM World Tour 'THE DREAM SHOW' overview. Photo by SM Entertainment

In contrast, in Korea-the home of K-pop-most large-scale concerts are held overseas. Stray Kids earned about 260 million dollars (around 350 billion won) from their world tour, but the proportion of domestic concerts was less than 5%. Similarly, of the 1.8 million attendees at BLACKPINK's world tour, about 95% were from overseas. The same is true for Seventeen and Enhypen.

The resulting economic loss is enormous. According to the Hyundai Research Institute, BTS's Seoul concert in 2019 generated a direct consumption effect of 331 billion won and an induced production effect of 1.2 trillion won. Industry insiders point out that "every time an artist of BTS's caliber performs overseas instead of in Seoul, the corresponding economic benefits are lost to other countries."

Pop star Taylor Swift's world tour, "The Eras Tour," is another representative example. Swift attracted 220,000 people with just four concerts in Tokyo, and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun estimated the economic impact during this period at 34.1 billion yen (about 322 billion won). As fans from Korea, China, and Southeast Asia flocked to Tokyo to attend the concerts, airline and accommodation sales soared. At the time, Chung Taeyoung, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Card, wrote on social media, "I should have heard 'Hello Seoul' in Seoul, but I am hearing it in Tokyo," expressing regret that "in the fierce competition among governments to attract concerts, we could not even attempt to secure them due to the lack of large venues."

Concert venues are now seen not just as cultural facilities but as platforms for complex industries. The absence of large-scale infrastructure directly translates into economic losses. This year, the government formed a "Task Force for Enhancing Service Industry Competitiveness" to discuss expanding large concert venues. Experts emphasize that this is an opportunity to redefine concert venues as core industrial assets rather than cultural welfare facilities. Ko Jeongmin, a professor at Hongik University, said, "Concerts are an industry that can change a city's brand," and added, "To bring the economic benefits of K-pop concerts back to Korea, building world-class arenas is essential."

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