Xi'an tourism revenue rides TFBoys fan wave

With their boyish charm and bubblegum beats, the members of Chinese pop group TFBoys are driving the popularity of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, where they held a concert on Sunday to mark the band's 10th anniversary.

As a legion of fans flocked to the Xi'an Olympic Sports Center to hear Wang Junkai, Wang Yuan and Yi Yangqianxi croon onstage, revenue from concert ticket sales reached 35.76 million yuan ($4.96 million), which in turn drove the city's tourism revenue to 416 million yuan, data from the Xi'an authority showed.

From Sunday through Monday, the number of online bookings for travel to Xi'an saw a surge of 738 percent compared with the same period last year, the data showed.

Xi'an will host 17 large-scale tours by 13 groups of singers by the end of 2023.

The TFBoys was founded in 2013.As one of the first Chinese homegrown boy bands to reach and sustain global popularity, TFBoys is often called a cultural phenomenon, and the group's concerts anywhere are powerful crowd magnets.

"I like to watch my favorite band's tours in other cities. Each time, the experience is unique because the songs are a bit different and they share onstage their feelings about the hosting city," said Wu Ying, 26, from Shanghai.

The steady influx of devoted fans to Xi'an prompted the trio to make an online plea on Sunday, urging supporters to abstain from gatherings and activities at venues, hotels and other locations, and be mindful of the city's capacity.

Xi'an authorities, on their part, concentrated on measures such as strengthening security, prolonging public transportation operating hours and releasing official guidelines for fans coming to the concert.

Qiao Chengwei, business manager of travel portal Tuniu in Shaanxi, attributed the rush partly to the strategic approach of Xi'an culture and tourism authorities, who have organized events such as anime exhibitions and music festivals to draw young people this very week.

"Xi'an has always been one of the most popular inter-provincial travel destinations. Family trips and study tours during this summer vacation is leading to a huge demand for high-speed train tickets and museum admissions," he said.

Feng Rao, dean of the tourism research academy at travel services and social networking platform Mafengwo, said, "Concerts not only bring economic benefits to tourism, but more importantly, they enhance the hosting city's popularity and showcase its uniqueness and charm."

He said the scale and quality of a concert determine its impact on a city's tourism economy. For first-tier and second-tier cities, larger and higher-quality concerts attract more audiences, drive consumption and increase tourism appeal.

For smaller cities, it is ideal to balance scale and quality. When it is challenging to support large concerts, lower-cost music festivals are a better choice, as they have lower requirements and can still boost a city's popularity, he said.

Song Changyao, head of the tourism management department at Beijing International Studies University, said: "Concerts and music festivals bring tourists to the hosting city, especially overnight tourists. This, in turn, increases demand for accommodations and dining, and boosts concert-related product sales, thus contributing to the overall tourism revenue."

Song, however, pointed out that such big-ticket events put extra pressure on a city's normal operations due to the sudden influx of people, requiring efficient coordination among various departments such as culture and tourism, transportation and public security.

"It is necessary to make provisional arrangements and emergency plans, focusing on crowd management, traffic routes, emergency evacuation and price stabilization during such events," he said.

"Compared with traditional sightseeing and basic experiential tourism, such events represent a form of fan economy, creating emotional connections for fans and visitors. These events provide young people memories, emotional resonance or stress relief, reflecting the diverse, personalized and emotion-driven trends in tourism demand," he added.

To develop urban tourism, Song suggested that hosting cities increase the frequency of such events and enhance the economic benefits on each occasion.