36 l November 2013
www.psneurope.com
livenews UNITED KINGDOM
Music tourism worth £2.2bn to the UK in 2012
International music lovers are sustaining more than 24,000 full-time jobs, according to a major new report issued by UK Music, writes David Davies
AN EXHAUSTIVE new report issued by commercial music umbrella organisation UK Music in conjunction with tourism authority VisitBritain has underlined the considerable value of music tourism to the British economy. Entitled Wish You Were Here in a possible nod to the 1975 bestseller by one of the UK’s most prodigious musical exports, Pink Floyd, the report reveals that 6.5 million tourists generated £2.2 billion while attending UK festivals and concerts in 2012. The 88-page document also
states that overseas music tourists made an average spend of £657 during their time in the UK. Other headline statistics include a grand total of 24,251 full-time jobs being sustained by music tourism. Glastonbury aside, mainstream media coverage of the live music industry can still often seem remarkably south east-centric.
The arrival of Wish You Were Here makes this even harder to justify, with 72% of music tourism shown to be occurring outside London. Speaking at a launch event held in the Top Deck area of the National Theatre – another cultural institution whose enduring contribution to UK life is currently being acknowledged with a raft of 50th birthday celebrations – UK Music CEO Jo Dipple pinpointed the economic contribution made by live music, but called for more co-ordinated action by government bodies. “The Stone Roses were
resurrected in Heaton Park last year, generating £23 million for the Manchester economy,” said Dipple at an event that was graced by a short set from fast-rising, Surrey-hailing singer/songwriter Newton Faulkner. “Our economy might have stopped flatlining, but we
need to get it to grow again. Government needs to start leading the recovery with its strongest hand, and that hand has two fingers sticking up on it – music and music tourism. If government puts its mind to creating a joined-up Music Tourism Strategy, we could grow the numbers we reveal in today’s report [even more].” Dipple urged policy-makers to
look overseas for inspiration, citing the $200 million contribution made by the SXSW festival to the economy of Austin, Texas. For UK Music’s part, she confirmed that the organisation would continue to work closely with VisitBritain, whose stated aim is to attract a total of 40 million overseas visitors by 2020. Wish You Were Here can be
read in full at the UK Music site:
http://www.ukmusic.org/ assets/media/.
www.ukmusic.org www.visitbritain.com
Jo Dipple (left) is pictured with VisitBritain CEO Sandie Dawe
Photo: Mahtab Hussain
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