Cultural, natural and recreational tourist attractions are usually the main reasons why people visit a country. But for the past couple of years, event tourism has quickly gained traction, as more and more people travel from one country to another just to attend special events such as concerts, sport games, and the like. After all, the experience is a significant part of traveling and tourism. Tourists will surely get a lot of experience in an event they enjoy.
The first reason why events and event management held an important role in tourism is because events help promote customer’s loyalty. Tourists tend to visit places or countries they have never visited before. But if a vacation spot held interesting events that will give different experiences, tourists will surely be more interested in visiting the destination, even if they have already visited the country in the past. They will get an experience that they didn’t get the last time they visited the location.
SEA Event Industry Infographic
Trip diversification is another reason why events attract tourists to a certain country. Different events will give tourists more choices in their itinerary other than the usual tourist attractions. In fact, tourists might visit a country to attend an event like a concert or a sports game, and visit other tourist attractions around the venue of the event during their stay. In this case, the event is the main destination of a tourists travel plan.
This rising trend can be seen from the recent numbers, including Asia events. In 2017, the revenue for ticket sales of events in Singapore reached 588 million USD and is estimated to reach 619 million USD in 2018. Singapore is not the only country in South East Asia that is getting revenues from events. The Philippines managed to get 255 million USD in 2017 from ticket sales, while Indonesia got around 92 million USD. With 2544 events, music events such as concerts and festivals are the most often held events regionally, while sports-related events are in the second place with 1503 events.
With the increasing interest in event tourism, PouchNATION makes it even easier for event attendees, even for those who are not locals, to enjoy an event. PouchNATION doesn’t only help people purchase a ticket to an event, but also makes it easier for attendees to purchase merchandise and food and beverage at the venue. The fact that PouchNATION helps provide cashless transaction sure does make everything more convenient for event goers.
Travel behavior and event management have gone through some pretty significant transformation in the last couple of years. In this digital era, event management needs support from great technology for a successful event.Eventually, successful events will greatly affect tourism.