If you’ve lost track of how many people in your orbit have recently posted pictures of themselves at a Formula One race or Taylor Swift concert, chances are you’re not alone. According to new research from Collinson International Ltd., which owns Priority Pass and LoungeKey airport lounges around the world, sports and music tourism are growing at unprecedented rates and are forecast to represent a $1.5 trillion industry by 2032.
Sports tourism represents the overwhelming majority of that figure. Valued at $564.7 billion in 2023, it’s expected to skyrocket to $1.33 trillion in the next eight years. Music tourism, meanwhile, is projected to contribute an additional $13.8 billion, more than doubling its current valuation of $6.6 billion.
For the purposes of its report, published on July 29, Collinson defined travelers as anyone who flew to an event, whether internationally or within their own country. Of 8,537 surveyed travelers from 17 countries, 83 percent have flown to a sporting event and 71 percent have boarded a plane for a concert in the past three years, or plan to in the next 12 months.
Collinson used those results to model how the industry has expanded and may continue to do so — assuming linear growth in spite of history-making events such as Swift’s Eras Tour or the first Summer Olympics in eight years to allow in-person spectators.
“People are placing high value on experiences over objects,” said Christopher Ross, president of Collinson International EMEA. “If you are going to a sports or music event, the experience does not just start when you walk into the stadium. It’s the planning, travel itself and excitement.”
About 83 percent of people traveling for events are heading to soccer matches, basketball games, the Olympics, F1 races or tennis tournaments — the five most popular sporting events in descending order. In a world where streaming networks have created easily accessible pathways to fandom, Ross said, “the ability to become a global fan has become much more of a reality.”
Soccer captured 69 percent of the survey’s sportsgoers, who said they’d recently traveled to a live match or had plans to do so in the next year. That includes those who were among the more than 1 million fans in Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup but not those who plan to attend the next World Cup, in 2026.
Formula One, meanwhile, has been surging in popularity with younger generations ever since Netflix Inc. premiered its Drive to Survive docuseries, in 2019; a full 30 percent of F1 fans attributed their interest in the sport to the show. In 2023 the average race weekend had more than 270,000 in-person spectators, up from 195,000 in 2019.
It’s not just that more people are interested in the sport; ticket prices are also on the rise. Tickets for races in the U.K. this summer have reached £600 ($765) for prime “grandstand” seats, with general admission often costing more than £400 per person — up from about £300 just two years ago — prompting British driver Lewis Hamilton to publicly criticize the rising price tag.
To Ross’ point, those tickets are just one aspect of the sports tourism economy, which also includes hotel stays, restaurant meals, taxi rides, merchandise and other expenses. Collinson data show that 77 percent of travelers arrive one or two days before a concert or competition, and 80 percent will stay one to three days after. Sports tourists spend the most, with 51 percent exceeding $500 per trip per person on flights and other expenses, not including the event tickets.
Take Las Vegas, which hosted an F1 Grand Prix race in November 2023. The event brought $1.5 billion in economic impact to the city, 50 percent more than the Super Bowl would raise just three months later. “It’s a younger demographic,” Ross said of F1 fans, who are among the most likely to add extra expenses to their sports trips. “It seems counterintuitive, because you would think they have less disposable income,” he added.
That doesn’t diminish the effect of other events. The Paris Summer Olympics, while less of an international tourism juggernaut than expected, still attracted enough tourists to send Airbnb bookings up 133 percent from the same period last year.
