The performing arts economy has become a new engine driving consumption, and the offline performance market continues to heat up. Concerts | music festivals | economy
The strong demand in the offline performance market is inseparable from supply side innovation. The market needs more new content, new forms, and new experiences. To adapt to these new demands, the performance industry needs to strengthen planning and operation, further enhancing the cultural depth and artistic height of performance products.
Entering the summer, the offline performance market continues to heat up. According to incomplete statistics from Ctrip, there will be more than 100 concerts and music festivals across the country from July to August. Air tickets and hotel orders for popular concert venues have increased significantly. From the data point of view, concerts, music festivals and other projects have a significant role in driving destination tourism consumption. In addition to watching the performance, many cross-city users will also take short-distance tours in or around the venue of the event, which will bring obvious pulling effects to the hotel accommodation, scenic spot tickets, car rental and self-driving, one-day tours, peripheral tours, and so on.
Demand for offline performances is booming
Speaking of his first experience of drama, the eyes of the audience named "Liu Ertong" immediately lit up. "The plot is great and the sense of substitution is strong. There is almost zero distance contact with the actors, and a lot of lines are like what they say to me, which is the unique charm of offline performances." What surprises "Liu Ertong" is an immersive interactive drama "Phantom Detective" in Beijing. The venue is a real scene of cultural relics, the actors are professional drama actors, and the script is adapted from a real historical story. This kind of immersive performance, which focuses on the creation of scenes and atmosphere, is very popular in some big cities in recent years.
Using technology to create an immersive experience is also a hot spot in the performance market this year. The original musical "The Voice of the Silk Road" uses holographic projection, naked-eye 3D, interactive design and other multimedia methods to tell the story of Shaanxi, promote the spirit of the Silk Road, and spread Chinese culture. The scene experience drama "see Dunhuang again" combines 3D images, moving giant screens and other devices to bring tourists to appreciate the unique charm of Dunhuang culture for thousands of years.
The light and shadow are bright, the sound and waves are rolling, and they are swaying at will with the rhythm. Since the beginning of this year, the music festival market has blossomed everywhere, and the sense of presence and sociality have made young people very "top". From "Strawberry" to "Midi", from "Oxygen" to "West Lake", the organizers fully explored the connotation and value of the music festival, created unique scenes, and successfully captured the hearts of young consumers.
In addition to traditional performances, interactive small theater performances have also become a new growth point in the performance market. Talk shows, rambling, impromptu comedy and other new formats are well received by the market. These new formats skillfully integrate the performance space with the commercial space, which plays a very good role in promoting the surrounding consumption, and the number of performances has even exceeded that of the traditional theater.
According to the data monitoring and analysis of the performance ticketing information collection platform of the China performance Industry Association, in the second quarter of 2023, there were 124400 commercial performances nationwide, an increase of 80.60 percent from the previous month; the box office revenue of performances was 11.813 billion billion yuan, an increase of 137.20 percent from the previous month; and the number of spectators was 40.3844 million, an increase of 84.81 percent from the previous month. Large-scale concerts, music festivals and new spaces in small theaters, one "big" and one "small" work together to promote the significant growth of performance consumption and performance-driven related consumption.
Industry insiders believe that the demand for offline performance market is strong and cannot be separated from supply-side innovation. Next, the performance industry should continue to stimulate new consumer demand through innovation. The market needs more new content, new forms, and new experiences. The performance industry must strengthen planning and operation to further enhance the cultural depth and artistic height of performance products.
Big potential to stimulate consumption
This summer, following the show to travel to become a lot of people travel choice.
Cross-city performance has become the main consumption trend of large-scale concerts and music festivals. Among the audience of famous singers such as May Day, Ren Xianqi and Liu Ruoying in Beijing, the proportion of cross-city performances exceeded 40%. The proportion of cross-city ticket buyers for Jay Chou's Hohhot concert, which opened in the first quarter, exceeded 70%, highlighting the pulling effect of such performances on cultural and tourism consumption. According to data from the China Performance Industry Association, during the "May 1st" period this year alone, the number of cross-city ticket purchases for large-scale performances accounted for more than 50% of the total number. Music festivals and concert projects drive the comprehensive consumption scale of transportation, accommodation, catering and so on beyond the box office of the performance to exceed 1.2 billion yuan.
The aggregation effect formed by the performance is prominent, which directly drives the growth of regional passenger flow. Relying on the new scene of the integration of performing arts consumption, Chengdu, Jinan, Tianjin, Wuhan and other places have also seen immersive theatrical performances that allow consumers to eat, taste wine, visit cultural markets and watch dramas, which are highly sought after by young people.
Shen Jianyi, a senior researcher at the Strategic Research Center of Ctrip Research Institute, analyzed that in addition to watching the performance, many people will also take short tours in or around the venue. This will drive the destination's hotel accommodation, scenic spot tickets, car rental and self driving, one-day tour, surrounding tour and other tourism items. At an electronic mountain music festival held in Chongli Taiwu Town, Hebei Province from July 1 to 2, Ctrip and seven hotels in Taiwu Town jointly launched a music festival travel package. In addition to accommodation and music festival tickets, tourists can also experience karting, mountain golf, hot springs, picking and other recreational activities and outdoor mountain activities.
Shen Jianyi believes that for the audience, having a good meal after watching the performance will draw a successful end to the day's journey. Therefore, the concert around the food is worth the attention of businesses and the platform.
The China Performance Industry Association pointed out in the national performance market briefing in the first half of 2023 that with the further promotion of the strategy of cultural and tourism integration, destinations with both tourism and cultural experience are more popular, and immersive cultural and tourism formats have become an important engine to promote scenic spot upgrading, rural revitalization, consumption upgrading and night economic development.
Wang Nian, an associate researcher at the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that the combination of performance and consumption is promising. How to better play the role of the performing arts economy in stimulating consumption? Wang Nian suggested that one is to vigorously innovate the consumption scene. Encourage local performing arts economy as an important part of creating characteristic festival activities, night economy and experience economy. The second is to effectively increase the supply of service consumption and continuously improve the quality of service supply. The third is to accelerate the optimization of the consumption environment, optimize transportation organization arrangements, enrich the surrounding consumer service formats, and create more convenient conditions for residents to enjoy performing arts consumption.
Sinking market to be dug deep
Once upon a time, music festivals, as a small circle culture, were very popular in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Since the beginning of this year, the wind of the music festival has blown to third-and fourth-tier cities and more sinking markets, giving more people the opportunity to experience the charm of the music scene.
Industry insiders pointed out that the rise of "small town youth" is the main reason for the sinking of the music festival, and they have plenty of time for leisure and entertainment. The younger generation of "post -95" and "small town youth" are the main consumers of music performances, and they have stronger consumption power in cultural products.
The sinking market is expected to become a new driving force for the development of the performance industry. To tap the potential of the sinking market, it is necessary to gain insight into the characteristics of consumer demand and launch marketable performance products and services. On the one hand, it is necessary to return the performance ticket price to a reasonable range. Reporters observed that the ticket price of small concerts in many places is 700 or 800 yuan. The sinking market is still in the cultivation stage, and "performance assassins" should not be allowed to hurt consumers. Small town music festivals should focus on "good quality and low price", combined with the consumption level of the local tourism industry, to provide audiences with more cost-effective choices.
On the other hand, to dig deep into the sinking market consumption potential. Compared with the first and second tier cities, there is still a big gap in the products and services provided by the sinking market. It is necessary to take the opportunity of holding music festivals to improve the consumption environment and fully release the consumption potential. Small towns are unique and cannot copy the model of big cities. They must find a correct positioning, highlight their characteristics, and retain consumers with full sincerity and high-quality services.
