Large-scale concerts held by Korean boy band BTS held in October has generated nearly 1 trillion won of economic impact, a study by Korea University Business School showed.

The three concerts held at the Seoul Olympic Stadium appear to have created around 922.9 billion won of both direct and indirect economic effects, equivalent to the annual revenue generated by six typical medium-sized companies in Korea.

Direct economic effect was calculated with ticket sales, costs for the venue and live broadcast, traffic and accommodation costs and tourist expenditure. The team led by professor Pyeon Ju-hyeon also studied the impact of BTS’ show on household income, productivity, consumer spending and inducing revisits by foreign tourists.

BTS Seoul concerts were the finale of its six-month world tour. Around 130,000 people attended the shows, including about 23,000 foreign visitors. It was estimated that, when factoring in accompanying visitors and promotional effects, the concerts increased tourism to Korea by 187,000 visits, about 67 percent of the 280,000 foreign visitors the country drawn by the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)