Music tourism connects live concerts and festivals with travel, spending and employment. In the UK, the latest headline measures report 24.7 million music tourists and £11.2 billion in spending in 2025. The earlier regional benchmark, covering 2022, records 14.4 million music tourists, £6.6 billion in spending and 56,000 full-time-equivalent jobs.
Contents
- Latest UK headline measures
- The 2022 national benchmark
- Regional visitor volumes
- Domestic and foreign visitors
- Regional spending
- Jobs supported by music tourism
Latest UK headline measures
The latest figures in this article cover 2025 and are reported by UK Music in “Oasis, Beyoncé and Dua Lipa Help Attract Massive 26.8% Increase in Overseas Visitors as Music Tourist Spending hits new high of £11.2 Billion at UK Music Events”. They describe visitors to concerts and festivals across the UK.
The 2025 headline measures are:
- UK music tourism attracted 24.7 million visitors to concerts and festivals.
- Music tourists spent £11.2 billion across the UK.
- Domestic music tourists numbered 22.6 million.
- Overseas music tourists numbered 2.1 million.
- Direct spending by UK music tourists at concerts and festivals reached £5.7 billion.
- Music tourism supported 74,000 full-time-equivalent live-music jobs.
These figures use a 2025 measurement period. They should be read as the latest UK-wide headline measures, while the regional detail below comes from a separate 2022 report and should not be treated as a like-for-like regional update.
The 2022 national benchmark
The detailed regional source is UK Music’s Here, There and Everywhere 2023, which reports UK music tourism measures for 2022. It records 14.4 million music tourists attending live music events. Domestic music tourists accounted for 13.3 million UK visitors, while foreign music tourists accounted for 1.1 million.
The same 2022 source reports £6.6 billion in total music tourism spending in the UK. It also estimates that music tourism sustained 56,000 jobs measured in full-time-equivalent terms. These job figures are an employment measure associated with music tourism, not a count of every person who worked at a concert or festival.
For context, total UK festival and concert attendance was 37.1 million in 2022. That attendance measure is different from the 14.4 million music tourists measure: the former refers to total festival and concert attendance, while the latter refers to music tourists attending live music events.
Regional visitor volumes
The 2022 regional figures show London as the largest recorded music tourism market, with 4.9 million music tourists. The North West recorded 1.9 million, Scotland recorded 1.5 million, and the South West of England recorded 1.1 million.
The regional figures also show that music tourism was distributed across the UK rather than confined to one market. The 2022 source identifies activity in English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This makes the regional breakdown useful for comparing the scale of visitor activity alongside each area’s spending and employment measures, while keeping the comparison anchored to the same year.
The remaining regional volumes were:
| UK region | Music tourists in 2022 |
|---|---|
| East of England | 570,000 |
| East Midlands | 510,000 |
| London | 4.9 million |
| North East | 350,000 |
| North West | 1.9 million |
| Northern Ireland | 270,000 |
| Scotland | 1.5 million |
| South East England | 960,000 |
| South West England | 1.1 million |
| Wales | 510,000 |
| West Midlands | 940,000 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 860,000 |
In the same 2022 dataset, Yorkshire and the Humber recorded 860,000 music tourists, the West Midlands recorded 940,000, and the South East recorded 960,000. Wales and the East Midlands each recorded 510,000. The East of England recorded 570,000, while the North East recorded 350,000 and Northern Ireland recorded 270,000.
These are regional music tourist volumes for 2022, not forecasts or current-year estimates. The source reports each geography separately, so comparisons should retain the regional definitions used in the report.
Domestic and foreign visitors
Domestic visitors made up the larger reported component in every listed UK region in 2022. London had 4.4 million domestic music tourists and 500,000 foreign music tourists. The North West had 1.8 million domestic and 120,000 foreign music tourists, while Scotland had 1.4 million domestic and 110,000 foreign music tourists.
The regional split was:
| UK region | Domestic | Foreign |
|---|---|---|
| East of England | 540,000 | 30,000 |
| East Midlands | 480,000 | 30,000 |
| London | 4.4 million | 500,000 |
| North East | 330,000 | 20,000 |
| North West | 1.8 million | 120,000 |
| Northern Ireland | 250,000 | 20,000 |
| Scotland | 1.4 million | 110,000 |
| South East England | 895,000 | 65,000 |
| South West England | 1 million | 53,000 |
| Wales | 480,000 | 30,000 |
| West Midlands | 890,000 | 50,000 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 810,000 | 50,000 |
South West England recorded 1 million domestic music tourists and 53,000 foreign music tourists. The South East recorded 895,000 domestic and 65,000 foreign visitors. The West Midlands recorded 890,000 domestic and 50,000 foreign visitors, while Yorkshire and the Humber recorded 810,000 domestic and 50,000 foreign visitors.
At smaller regional volumes, the East of England recorded 540,000 domestic and 30,000 foreign music tourists. The East Midlands recorded 480,000 domestic and 30,000 foreign visitors. Wales recorded 480,000 domestic and 30,000 foreign visitors. The North East recorded 330,000 domestic and 20,000 foreign visitors, and Northern Ireland recorded 250,000 domestic and 20,000 foreign visitors.
The national 2022 split was 13.3 million domestic music tourists and 1.1 million foreign music tourists. The 2025 figures are a later measurement: 22.6 million domestic and 2.1 million overseas music tourists. Because the periods differ, the two national splits should be treated as separate annual snapshots rather than a continuous regional time series.
Regional spending
Regional spending in 2022 followed the concentration of visitors, with London recording £2 billion in music tourism spending. The North West recorded £696 million, the South West recorded £683 million, and the South East recorded £608 million.
The full regional spending measures were:
- East of England: £332 million.
- East Midlands: £321 million.
- London: £2 billion.
- North East: £165 million.
- North West: £696 million.
- Northern Ireland: £136 million.
- Scotland: £581 million.
- South East England: £608 million.
- South West England: £683 million.
- Wales: £218 million.
- West Midlands: £433 million.
- Yorkshire and the Humber: £384 million.
These figures describe music tourism spending in each region during 2022. The national 2022 total was £6.6 billion. The later 2025 measure was £11.2 billion across the UK, including £5.7 billion in direct spending by music tourists at concerts and festivals. The direct-spending measure and total-spending measure are labelled separately by period and scope in the source material.
London’s £2 billion regional spending measure was the largest listed amount. The North West, South West and South East followed with £696 million, £683 million and £608 million respectively. Scotland’s reported £581 million also places it among the larger regional spending measures, while the North East and Northern Ireland recorded £165 million and £136 million.
Jobs supported by music tourism
The 2022 regional employment figures provide another view of music tourism’s local footprint. London recorded 13,200 jobs supported by music tourism, followed by the South West with 7,040 and the North West with 6,510. Scotland recorded 5,340, and the South East recorded 4,860.
The remaining regional employment measures were 4,180 jobs in the West Midlands, 3,360 in Yorkshire and the Humber, 3,150 in the East Midlands, 2,920 in the East of England, 2,470 in Wales, 1,690 in the North East and 1,280 in Northern Ireland.
The regional figures can be read alongside the UK-wide 2022 estimate of 56,000 full-time-equivalent jobs. The 2025 headline report later recorded 74,000 full-time-equivalent live-music jobs supported by music tourism. Both are employment estimates expressed in full-time-equivalent terms, but they refer to different measurement periods.
For the most recent national snapshot, the key measures are 24.7 million visitors, £11.2 billion in spending, £5.7 billion in direct concert and festival spending, and 74,000 full-time-equivalent live-music jobs in 2025. For the regional picture, the available detail is for 2022: 14.4 million music tourists, £6.6 billion in spending and 56,000 full-time-equivalent jobs across the UK.