Happy Monday! Thanks for opening the fifth edition of the Stan newsletter. A weekly newsletter exploring fans and their bidirectional relationships with the artists that they love. As always suggestions and feedback are always appreciated. You can shoot me an email at dkuhlor@gmail.com.
As tourism rises in Ghana and Nigeria there has never been a better time for international acts to hit the stage. As artists create a performance strategy, they should prioritize understanding tourism trends to provide their fans, local and visiting, with differentiated experiences that combine the uniqueness of the country that they are visiting and their brand identity.
Centering a Tourism Experience Around an Artist
In September 2018 Airbnb published “The Fastest Growing African Countries for Airbnb Guests”. Unsurprisingly, Nigeria (213%) and Ghana (141%), were the top two fastest growing countries for guest arrivals on the platform. With both countries focused on increasing tourism in the next few years, these numbers will only continue to rise. Ghana declared 2019 as the “Year of Return” a formal initiative encouraging people of the African diaspora to take a birthright trip to the country. The Year of Return is a catalyst for a longer tourism play as the country has revealed a 15 year tourism plan that seeks to increase the annual number of tourists to Ghana from 1M to 8M by 2027. As the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria has put less of a focus on increasing tourism, however has been dominating in the category (just look at the Airbnb numbers) nonetheless. According to Wesgro, "the majority of travelers to Nigeria are from nearby countries like Benin, Niger, Liberia, Cameroon, Chad and Sudan from where access to Nigeria is easy.” It is easy to infer that an international artist choosing to perform in Ghana or Nigeria will not only encourage the people of that country to attend but people from neighboring countries as their access to their favorite artists is even more limited.
Festivals have become a commodity and as the lineups start to look more or less the same, the right location allows festival producers to differentiate themselves through something other than the artist lineup. Part of the reason Fyre Fest was able to sell so many tickets was the appeal of going to the Bahamas. While the festival was the arc of the trip, the experience of visiting the Bahamas became much bigger than the setlist. As a result, artists have a really unique opportunity to benefit by creating packages that not only include concert tickets, but additional experiences centered specifically around the country they are visiting. By partnering with tourism boards they can promote their show while adding an additional stream of revenue through a direct deal with a tourism board or commission. This approach has worked for Canada with it being estimated that Drake is worth $440M or 5% of the cities tourism economy. As someone whose first visit to Toronto was to see a Drake concert I am actually shocked it is not larger. The Ghanaian music festival Afrochella has leveraged this dynamic brilliantly through their package offerings. While only in its third year, the festival is offering attendees two additional packages that include everything from additional events, a group chat community, and transportation to a multi-day experience complete with hotels, breakfast, and the ability to pick and choose amongst tourist attractions.
An Opportunity for Labels to Differentiate Themselves
When is the right time in an artists career to begin pursuing such a time intensive strategy? While every tourism board and country is different, I think that as long as an artist has the proper resources this strategy can work for artists small and big. As labels struggle to differentiate themselves creating deep partnerships with tourism boards so they can spin up these experiences quickly is a super compelling value-add for artists that have aspirations to be global. Artists have the ability to implement this approach on a small or large scale and can partner with local businesses instead of working with tourism boards as well.
By leveraging an international show to bring in multiple streams of revenue it allows artists to offer a lower price point (without sacrificing their bottom line) while connecting with their fans through a variety of avenues. As artists use their influence to encourage fans to visit new countries it is imperative that there is a nuanced enough understanding of the country to ensure that the experiences proposed will work for tourists and locals.
My Favorite Stan Moments:
My headphones:
Ja Are E by Burna Boy (I saw him in concert on Friday and it is in the Top Three best shows I have ever attended.)
Happy Monday!
D
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