The President of Mexico sent a letter to the President of South Korea requesting additional BTS concert dates, marking the band's first tour in four years, after 150,000 tickets sold out in Mexico within 40 minutes.
President Claudia Sheinbaum sent a letter to South Korean President Lee Jae-myung asking to add more BTS concert dates following the release of their comeback and first world tour in four years. The 150,000 tickets sold in Mexico sold out within 40 minutes, falling short of demand. Tickets were then resold at exorbitant prices for profit, prompting consumer protection agencies to investigate, while South Korea has yet to respond to the matter.
The seven members of BTS are scheduled to perform 79 shows worldwide, beginning in South Korea this April before traveling to various countries. Mexico is one of the destinations planned for three shows, totaling 150,000 seats.
When tickets went on sale last Saturday (24 Jan), about one million fans queued on the Ticketmaster website to purchase tickets, showing demand far exceeding the number of tickets available, leaving many unable to buy tickets.
Besides fans, resellers attempted to buy tickets to resell at high prices through websites like StubHub and Viagogo, with prices ranging from about 20,000 baht up to 166,000 baht, while official ticket prices were only 3,200 to 32,000 baht.
Recently, Mexico's consumer protection agency penalized these resale websites for exploitative and dishonest practices toward consumers and launched an investigation into Ticketmaster, the official ticket seller, following complaints about the use of dynamic pricing—a system that adjusts ticket prices in real time based on demand—resulting in fluctuating ticket prices.
BTS's popularity aligns with a more than 500% growth in the K-pop music trend in Mexico over the past five years. The major streaming platform Spotify states that Mexico is the fifth-largest global market for the K-pop industry.
These events prompted Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to send a letter to President Lee Jae-myung requesting additional BTS concert dates in Mexico, hoping for a positive response from South Korean authorities. The BTS concert organizer in Mexico stated that the global group’s schedule is tight and adding shows is not possible, while South Korean media report that President Lee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have declined to comment on the issue.
BTS paused group music releases and tours since June 2022 to allow members to produce solo works for fans before fulfilling their mandatory military service and have announced plans to return fully in 2025.
The renowned music ranking magazine Billboard forecasts that this world tour could generate up to 30 billion baht in revenue for BTS and their agency Hybe from ticket sales, merchandise, albums, and streaming, potentially making it the highest-grossing concert tour of 2026.
Source:BBC
Click to read more news aboutBTS