BTS Disrupts Global Tourism and Economic Markets Ahead of Tour
BTS is shaking up global tourism and economies with their massive world tour announcement.
The group’s BTS WORLD TOUR “ARIRANG” starts April 9 at Goyang Stadium and will hit 34 cities across North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. The tour includes 82 shows total.
Tour announcement on March 14 caused trip searches to Seoul to jump 155% worldwide within 48 hours. Busan’s searches exploded by 2,375%. Key Asian markets like Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan saw Busan travel searches spike by thousands of percent. Domestic travel searches surged too — Seoul up 190%, Busan up 3,855%.
Brazil went wild after the October São Paulo concert news. Local radio BandNews FM reported that bus ticket searches to São Paulo surged over 600 times, according to transportation platform ClickBus.
The British paper The Guardian called BTS’s tour a “global event capable of significantly impacting urban economies across North America.”
Financial firm Bread Financial said one concert ticket usually “generates more than triple the local economic activity on average.”
But tourism analysts at Tourism Economics said this is nothing for BTS:
“These averages do not apply to BTS. They far exceed these figures, making it difficult to even estimate the full economic ripple effect of this tour”
BTS also boosts South Korea’s national image big-time. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism named BTS the top Korean group positively shaping the country’s image in their 2025 survey. Jungkook ranked highest among solo singers at 6th place.
BTS will drop their 5th full album “ARIRANG” on March 20, 1pm. It has 14 tracks about identity, longing, and love.
BTS is clearly more than just music — they’re moving economies and global travel like no other.