Global K-pop concerts are emerging as a new growth driver for tourism in Busan. Overseas fans who visited the city for the BTS world tour stayed for extended periods, demonstrating the effectiveness of tourism marketing built around large-scale concerts, observers said.
According to the Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Tourism Organization on Monday, a total of 31,583 people visited the "BTS THE CITY Arirang Busan Welcome Center – Check-in Busan," operated at the Busan Eurasia Platform in connection with the BTS world tour "Arirang IN Busan" in June. Of these, 24,004 were foreigners, accounting for 76% of the total.
Survey results also showed that the concert drove tourism demand. Of the respondents, 82.1% cited attending the BTS concert and related events as the main purpose of their visit to Busan. Among foreign tourists, this figure reached 88.1%.
Most notably, a significant number of concertgoers stayed in Busan and extended their visits into local tourism. Of the respondents, 78.3% said they stayed in Busan for three days and two nights or more, and the survey found that they also visited beach destinations such as Haeundae and Gwangalli, as well as Nampo-dong, Jagalchi Market, and Gamcheon Culture Village. The proportion who said they would recommend Busan to others reached 94.6%, indicating high tourist satisfaction.
The Welcome Center served as a tourism hub for concertgoers. It offered tourist information, luggage storage and delivery services, K-beauty experiences, a music experience zone, photo zones, and an AI travel recommendation service based on Google Gemini, simultaneously enhancing concertgoers' travel convenience and tourism experience. During the concert period, large photo zones, pop-up stores, cultural performances, and tourism events were also operated at Busan Station and Gimhae International Airport, expanding hospitality programs across the city.
At Busan Station Plaza, regional cultural content such as Miryang Arirang performances was showcased alongside promotion of Busan's local specialties, while a welcome event for arriving tourists was held at Gimhae International Airport, using the entire city as a tourism platform beyond the concert venue.
The Busan Metropolitan City assessed that the event also confirmed the potential of the Busan Eurasia Platform. Leveraging its location adjacent to Busan Station, the platform functioned as an urban tourism hub connecting concerts and tourism, and could serve as core infrastructure for tourism marketing linked to future global events. In a survey of Busan citizens, 90.8% said concert-linked hospitality events help boost tourism, and 92.0% responded positively to using the Busan Eurasia Platform as a hospitality space for tourists.
Na Yoon-bin, director general of the Busan Metropolitan City's Tourism and MICE Bureau, said, "We wanted fans from around the world to feel Busan's hospitality with their whole body, from the moment they arrive in Busan to when they reach the concert venue." He added, "We will continue to expand our strategy of connecting global concerts and international events to Busan tourism, enhancing our competitiveness as a global tourism city."
