2024-08-12
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
Reporter of China Business Network: Yu Yang and Yu Ruijun Editor of China Business Network: Liu Yanmei
As the longest tourist peak season of the year, this summer, the concert economy is becoming a "walking GDP" and is seen as a new engine to drive urban consumption.
Recently, Shandong has successively issued documents such as "Action Plan for Improving the Modern Tourism System and Accelerating the Construction of a Strong Tourism Province (2024-2027)" and "Several Policy Measures on Further Promoting Steady and Positive Economic Development and Improving Quality During Progress", proposing to enrich and develop "performances + tourism" and other cultural and tourism integration formats, and encourage various places to hold large-scale concerts and music festivals with more than 10,000 people.
As the first economic city in Shandong and the second largest consumer city in the north, Qingdao has set a new goal - "the concert city that understands young people best."
According to statistics, in the first half of this year, Qingdao held 35 large-scale commercial performances with more than 5,000 people, ranking first in the country. Before 2023, Qingdao held only two or three concerts a year.
Another set of data for comparison is that in 2023, 32 artists held 38 concerts in Shenzhen and 26 artists held 41 concerts in Beijing. Local media said, "Compared with the 'top stream', Qingdao has jumped into the ranks of first-tier cities for concerts."
However, the current entertainment market is highly competitive, and it is not easy for Qingdao to become a "real hit", whether it is to establish a new image or cultivate new industries. Can Qingdao become a "top streamer" this time?
The "2024 First Half National Performance Market Development Brief" released by the China Performance Industry Association shows that the large-scale performance market has experienced explosive growth in the first half of this year, with box office revenues from concerts and music festivals increasing by 134.73% year-on-year and the number of spectators increasing by 63.35% year-on-year. Among them, large-scale concerts with more than 5,000 people have the highest contribution rate to market growth.
Qingdao is undoubtedly one of the best. However, this northern city is not a traditional "concert center". For a long time since 2000, Qingdao concerts were only promoted on an annual basis and were not valued by performance companies.
A landmark turning point came in 2019. In July of that year, Qingdao launched its first professional music festival, the Phoenix Music Festival. Singers such as Cui Jian, Li Jian, Pu Shu, Hua Chenyu, and Mao Buyi took turns to perform, attracting more than 40,000 fans in two days, winning the championship box office of the same period of music festivals in one fell swoop, and ranked second at the end of the year, which can be said to be a "hit".
Later, Qingdao launched its own IPs such as the Ai Kesh Airport Music Festival and the Island Qing Music Festival, hoping to further expand the music market. Public data shows that in 2023, Qingdao held a total of 24 music festivals of various types, attracting more than 500,000 visitors with high-frequency events.
With the experience of music festivals as a foundation, Qingdao started holding concerts on a monthly basis last year, and on this basis, the idea of competing for the title of "Concert City" emerged. After all, the role of concerts in boosting the local economy has been seen by everyone.
Last summer, Jay Chou held four concerts in Haikou, attracting 154,600 spectators, including 95,100 from outside the province, and bringing Haikou a tourism revenue of 976 million yuan.
Last August, TFBOYS' "Ten Years' Appointment" concert landed in Xi'an, which boosted the local tourism revenue by 416 million yuan in two days.
In April this year, Phoenix Legend's 20th anniversary tour first stopped in Changzhou, attracting more than 70,000 fans in two days, driving consumption of about 300 million yuan...
It can be seen that in addition to "senior players" such as Shanghai and Beijing, more and more second- and third-tier cities are investing in the performing arts market and tapping into cultural tourism consumption. Can Qingdao, a latecomer, replicate another "out-of-the-box" case? This summer season is undoubtedly a very important touchstone.
Data shows that from June to August, 13 singers will hold 15 concerts in Qingdao, which is a significant increase compared to last year when there were only 7 singers and 9 concerts.
Local media said Qingdao has become one of the first-tier cities for concerts. According to ticketing software data, the number of people who want to watch concerts in Qingdao far exceeds the number of tickets, which means that the box office of concerts has not yet peaked. "2024 will be the year for performance companies to test the 'peak' of Qingdao's box office."
Just last weekend (August 10), Yoga Lin and Angela Zhang performed in Qingdao at the same time. On the 24th of this month, Masiwei and Fish Leong’s Qingdao concert will also be held on the same day.
In July, Qingdao welcomed concerts by singers such as Jeff Chang, Li Jian, Huang Liling, and Xiao Shenyang; and in June, Qingdao held six concerts in one go, with about 130,000 fans attending, breaking the single-month concert record in the Qingdao and Shandong markets in one fell swoop.
June 15 and 16 were especially memorable days in the history of Qingdao concerts. During the two-day weekend, Deng Ziqi and David Tao performed simultaneously, attracting nearly 100,000 fans - more than 70% of whom were young people, according to official data.
The key to attracting traffic from concerts is to capture young people. Qingdao has made no secret of its desire to be “the concert city that understands young people best.” An article published on the Qingdao Municipal Government’s official website mentioned:
"In 2024, young music fans from all over the country will push Qingdao to the throne of 'concert city'", "Qingdao is creating a 'youth-friendly' music and cultural atmosphere, and young music fans are constantly building momentum for Qingdao while enjoying concerts, running towards Qingdao in the name of music..."
Young people are not only a representation of consumption power, but also related to the future of the city.
According to the newly released "Three-Year Action Plan for Aggregating Young Talents (2024-2026)", Qingdao will strive to introduce more than 450,000 new young talents in three years, and maintain the proportion of young people in the city's employed population at around 70%.
In other words, Qingdao has to attract 150,000 young people every year, which is not easy. From the operational perspective, having a name and a good reputation in the world of young people is undoubtedly the first step.
In fact, in recent years, cities such as Cao County and Zibo in Shandong have become "phenomenal Internet celebrities" one after another, attracting heated discussions and check-ins among young people, while Qingdao, as an old tourist city, seems to be much inferior.
In addition to “red tiles, green trees, blue sea and blue sky”, can Qingdao establish a new image?
Previously, the local area had proposed to build urban cultural brands such as the Sailing Capital, Music Island, Film Capital, and Brand Capital, but none of them succeeded and had low recognition.
The Qingdao Federation of Industry and Commerce once wrote an article analyzing the problems of the local cultural tourism brand, arguing that "the distribution of Qingdao's cultural tourism attractions is uneven, the overall image is not clear enough, the characteristic positioning is not prominent enough, and there is a lack of a connected and memorable 'main line'." It bluntly stated that "Qingdao is indeed insufficient in opening up the young traffic market."
"Hosting concerts and music festivals can be seen as an exploration of the 'main line,'" said Qin Zunwen, vice president of the China Urban Economics Society. "Unlike the 'flash in the pan' internet celebrities, this approach is sustainable, showing young people the strength and taste of the city, while also accumulating experience in hosting large-scale events, forming a virtuous circle."
Zeng Gang, director of the Institute of Urban Development at East China Normal University, believes that Shandong's current problem of population outflow has not been completely reversed, and Qingdao needs to play a leading role in it. "The performance market can also bring immeasurable indirect benefits to Qingdao. The more young people come and pay more attention, the younger the city will be and the more opportunities for growth it will have."
Compared with Shanghai, which holds hundreds of concerts a year, Qingdao still has room for improvement. As a highlight of the current consumer market, concerts continue to increase and optimize supply, and the direction is very clear.
In fact, in terms of economic strength, Qingdao has been the "third largest city in the north" for a long time. In recent years, Qingdao has been narrowing the gap with Tianjin. Last year, the difference between the two was only 97.696 billion yuan. If it can further expand its consumption advantage, it is expected to be promoted in the ranking.
Data shows that Qingdao's total retail sales in 2023 will be 631.89 billion yuan, up 7.3% from the previous year. Among northern cities, its consumption scale is second only to Beijing, making it the "second city in the north" in the consumption field.
In order to achieve the goal of "total retail sales of consumer goods exceeding 700 billion yuan" by 2025, Qingdao has designated this year as the "Year of Consumption Promotion". In the first half of the year, total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 5.6%, ranking first among trillion-yuan cities. During the same period, total retail sales of consumer goods in Tianjin decreased by 2.1% year-on-year.
In May this year, Shandong issued a special document to support Jinan and Qingdao to benchmark against international consumer centers and build northern consumer centers and important international consumer destinations. For Qingdao, while comprehensively boosting traditional consumption such as automobiles and home furnishings, "holding large-scale performances and music festivals" has become a must for promoting the upgrading of service consumption.
Zeng Gang mentioned that Qingdao is neither a provincial capital nor a municipality, so it may be easier to introduce overseas concerts and the commercial risks are lower.
Qin Zunwen said that Qingdao's consumer market has a wider coverage, covering the entire Shandong Peninsula and surrounding coastal provinces, while Tianjin's consumer market has a lot of overlap with Beijing. "In comparison, consumption is Qingdao's major strength."
He also mentioned that Tianjin's industries focus on "big industries" such as heavy industry, steel and petrochemicals, and "big logistics", while Qingdao has "both light and heavy industries" and relatively more choices, and "Qingdao is likely to surpass Tianjin in 3 to 5 years." As the local media said, Qingdao has seen the dawn of surpassing Tianjin.
Daily Economic News
Collect and organize the latest news information and make it available for free for everyone to read
