Study: Aussies spent $2.5b online on entertainment tickets
Image: Caitlyn Shadbolt at the 2016 CMC Rocks festival
Australians spent $2.5 billion online in 2015 on tickets to shows, films and events.
According to Roy Morgan Research, 40% of the buys were by women aged 35+, spending $300 million more than men. Older show-goers and families combined spent three times more than the under-35s.
The 25-34 year-olds demographic is most likely to go to rock or pop concerts while the 14-24 opts for the cinema.
The largest spenders were the 35-49 year-olds, who clicked to buy $1 billion worth of entertainment tickets last year.
In comparison, the 14-24 demographic spent $279 or 11% of the overall market. The spend by 25-34 year-olds was $354 million, or 14%. Australians aged 50+ clicked to buy $810 million worth of tickets, representing 32% of the market.
The study unearthed spend differences by sex. Almost 250,000 more women than men buy tickets online during an average month—but when men do buy tickets online, they spend $20 more. However, the higher purchasing incidence among women, across all age groups, more than makes up for their lower average expenditure, and in 2015 56% of online entertainment ticket sales went to women.
Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine, CEO, commented, “One in 15 Australians 14+ buy tickets to shows, movies and events online in an average four weeks—women aged 35-49 are the most common online ticket-buyers (around one in eight), while men aged 14-24 are the least (fewer than one in 25).
“While incidence and population size each play a big part in how much each group contributes to the annual $2.5 billion market, another important factor is which tickets and events these groups prefer—and how much they cost: 14-24 year-olds are the most likely to go to the cinema; more 25-34 year-olds go to rock or pop concerts, the zoo, or exhibitions like home and boat shows; more 35-49 year-olds go to theme parks and sporting events; and more people aged 50-plus go to live theatre and classical concerts, galleries and museums.
“And perhaps men really need to get out more, being outnumbered by women at nearly all events, including the movies, theatre, concerts, galleries, museums and zoos.”