Taylor Swift and Creamfields help bring £1.2bn tourism boost to North West according to new report

Live music in 2024 brought 3.3 million music tourists to the region, including some from overseas, as artists played sold-out shows in Liverpool and right across the region.

Tom Kiehl, Chief Executive of UK Music, said: “We've unveiled new statistics today which show the economic value of music tourism, so it's a really important moment to celebrate the success, but also there's more that needs to be done around live music venues, festivals, making sure that they are sustainable and we can continue to enjoy a successful music industry.”

Fans of a wide range of genres could see their favourites in the North West, with Taylor Swift and Pink at Anfield Stadium, Sam Fender at Co-op Live and Chappell Roan at Manchester Academy.

Tom Kiehl said: “We're coming to Liverpool to launch this report which we call Hometown Glory and actually shine a spotlight on what local authorities in the area can do and actually make sure that they've got the right policies and practices in place to make sure that the industry can grow.”

Festivals such as Creamfields and Parklife also brought a large number of funds to the region.

However, Tom Keel, Chief Executive of UK Music, said the sector is still facing financial challenges, he said: “It's a very precarious, delicate situation. Venues have financial issues in terms of their ability to make profit and sustain themselves.”

Adding: “They're actually also quite vulnerable to landlords and the kind of priorities around there. So, there's a whole number of areas where there needs to be greater protections and also in terms of licensing and making sure that they're not vulnerable to noise complaints and making sure that there's more proportionality taken with local authorities in that regard.”

Across the country in 2024, 21.9 million people in the UK were music tourists, according to the report, meaning they travelled at least three times the average commutes for their region to see live acts.

A further 1.6 million people travelled from abroad to the UK for gigs, which the report said was driven largely by Taylor Swift's era's tour. But, international acts including Bruce Springsteen and Burna Boy, also made an impact.

Tom Kiehl said: “We've had a lot of progress in recent years and now with the new government in place, they've recently launched their industrial strategy. The creative industry is one of eight sectors across the economy which have been identified as a sector for growth.”

Adding: “Within that music has been prioritised and given high priority as a growth driving part of the music industry. So government recently announced a new package of 10 million each year for the next three years to support music projects. That's an uplift in the amount of support we're getting from government as a sector.”

The report published by UK Music, an association which represents the country's commercial music industry, also found music tourism supported around 9,250 full-time equivalent jobs in the North West.