LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — A new report by UK Music claims that live music employs more than 19,000 people a year and contributes more than £1 billion to the economy of the United Kingdom.
According to the report, large scale music across all regions of the UK in 2009 drew at least 7.7 million fans who spent more than &1.4 billion during the course of their patronage. The report also noted that while only 5% of the attendees were from overseas, foreign visitors accounted for 18% of the overall spending.
Based on the report, UK Music is calling for a "live music tourism strategy" that aims to increase the number of music tourists from abroad. This dovetails with a recent initiative announced by the U.K government to foster economic growth through creative industries.
UK Music is an umbrella trade association for the music industry in the U.K., with member organizations that range from indie label trade association AIM to royalty collection associations such as PRS for Music. The research was conducted by Bournemouth University's International Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research and based on more than 2.5 million anonymized ticketing transactions.
Research leader, Professor Adam Blake said: "This is the first time that a comprehensive study of music tourism has ever been undertaken in the UK. The data on where music-goers come from confirms that large numbers of them do travel around the country to go to music events, and significant numbers come from overseas. However, it is important to note that our definition of a music tourist is hugely conservative, and that we did not analyse the vast numbers of non-ticketed or smaller capacity events." – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
