Tickets to Travel is essentially a B2B podcast and there's really no outlet or any type of content that sort of focuses on the fan experience which is a little odd considering every major entertainment company, even travel companies have this initiative for super fans and how to make that experience a lot better.
What was the first concert? or just piece of media that maybe got you thinking about this particular, and I'm not saying it yet, but this particular set of content. is what's going to make you a superfan. Ah. I was always a music lover, and all but had spanned a lot of different genres. Yeah.
Growing up, and being Filipino American, there was not that much representation. But I grew up first listening to Broadway and Disney because of Lea Salonga. And I was a big fan. Oh, you're bringing it back for me a little bit. Yes. Okay. And I grew up in New York City, so I was a big fan of live music, live theater, always, because of Lea Salonga.
And then, of course, I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, so my first fan experience at the concert, I just talked about this with a friend yesterday, was Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg, and Korn. Oh! All in the same concert. What a show! Yes. They were the headliners. I did see Linkin Park and Pearl Jam together.
Which was insane. I was in Florida, and I remember traveling across the state to see two shows back to back. But what a show for you to start off with. Yes. Snoop Dogg was there too? Snoop Dogg was riding a little tricycle around, just smoking. Oh, I think I remember this. Yeah, just smoking stuff and like riding around in a tricycle.
Up in smoke tour. Yeah, no, it was it was Oh gosh, I think it was the Warped Tour, or like the, it was like one of those, like it was a festival. And it was out in Long Island, and so it was a two day festival. Jones Beach? Jones Beach. Of course. Theater. Yep. Okay. From that moment on, you listened to a bunch of music, but we're really here to talk about K pop.
Yes. So when did that transition happen for you as a fan? So here's the interesting thing. I grew up in Queens. Yeah. I grew up around a lot of Korean Americans, interestingly. But I, Was bullied in middle school for not being like Asian enough because I hung out with mostly the white kids Yeah, but there is this contingent of Korean American kids who all had the pictures of the original kpop or HOT on their binders and this is a time when everyone had like the really long bangs and like the mushroom cuts and stuff And so I knew about kpop When I was in middle school, but I didn't really become a fan until I was an adult and so like literally Seven years ago or so is when I became a kpop fan So when we were taught when we're setting this up you were very clear in that there are different generations Yes, of kpop And for those who are novices in this particular genre, what are these different levels?
Yes. There is going back to the 90s where H. O. T. was the originators. I think the first group in K pop to have a big fanbase like that. So they're Gen 1. I'm actually, even though I wasn't listening to them at the time that they were like at their height, Yeah. I'm a Gen 2 fan, which is, and also because it's more of my age, I just turned 40 and they're closer to my age.
, my favorite groups from there are 2PM and SHINee and 2PM in particular, I became a really big fan of them because one of their members grew up in Boston and so he speaks English, and I think I have a shot if I ever meet him. If I ever meet him, that's the logic. He's on the list.
Yeah, he's on the list. He's on my laminated card. Got it. And then Gen 3 is BTS, which most people know. The ARMY. The ARMY. So I am BTS ARMY, and that's really how I got into K pop. Are there ranks in the ARMY? Probably. Are you like a general? I'm not, no. Are you a general? No. There's some really hardcore BTS fans.
I think I'm probably like maybe a lieutenant if we had to have ranks there, yeah but I like a lot of the other gen three groups. Exo is another one. That's really popular And and red velvet and like black pink would be considered gen three black pink, of course So there's just been an onset of popularity around these artists.
Yes What do you as someone who's followed this for a number of years. What do you attribute that to? I just went to a gen five concert. So these kids like when I say kids Like, like lower Gen Z. Yeah, I think the oldest one in this group, it was Ampersand 1, I think the oldest one is 19. So I'm like literally twice their age.
And it was funny because it was me, my husband, and my two, two of my best friends who were both in their 50s. One of them went to, it was her very first K pop concert. Okay, and so when I say this is a fairly new group, so they're playing at a community college in Charlotte They're going to these really small theaters all around the country to get their name out Yeah And I say the story in the sense of looking at it from the lens of my friend who's a 54 year old White woman, you know at this kpop concert and watching her experiences for the first time.
Yeah The way that I can encapsulate it is what I call like the beauty of Delulu land As in like you get into this space and it's just good vibes like everyone is really friendly there was another girl. I think she was probably 14 who was behind us and it was her first k pop concert And k pop fans know that when you go to concerts that you're supposed to give gifts to the other Fans and stuff like swifties have their bracelets Which I just learned about the bracelets it's associated to the various eras of Taylor, or a particular lyric, makes a whole lot of sense.
So then, this means something to me, I'm gonna hand it to you. There's a version of this with K pop. But I think K pop was probably before Taylor Swift did it. I don't know that for sure, you can go fact check that. But, K pop fans have done, like that's part of the culture, that's been part of the culture for a long time.
And I think in in just like an Asian culture in general, the way that I can attribute it to is, it would be similar to people who are big fans of Pokemon cards, or Magic cards, if you have a group of people that you know you like, that you trade cards, it's like that in K Pop, and they've been doing that since Gen 1.
Interesting. Are there actual cards to K Pop? There are. Okay, there are. And there are so there is merch that The large companies make and so in whenever there is an album release They usually also release all this other merch and like photo cards. And so there are actually events where People get together and they have like baseball cards or basketball cards or whatever.
They'll have binders of kpop Conferences where they trade in real time. Yeah. Yeah. I have this is very educational. Yeah. Yeah When you say conference, that's probably a strong word for It's like it's a gathering last time I went to one of those it was a bunch of Adorable teenage girls at a what used to be a Denny's Yeah
I'm sure that there's a big conference somewhere Kcon What is KCON? I have not been to it yet. I'm planning to go this year. Okay. And, but KCON is like the conference for K pop and it's been going on for years. It's been in LA but they also do it in other cities. So they have it in like Dubai and they have in Japan and it's and it's great because it's all of the It tends to be now newer groups that go there the bigger groups are probably too big for KCON, but what's been cool in the last couple of years is, for example, that group that I mentioned, SHINee they were, they've been around for 15 years now, but they're still in their 30s, because they started out really young, and their, one of their members went solo, and he performed last year, and it's a I'm really excited for it.
It'll be my first fan experience of going to KCON, but they also have what's in a lot of Asian music shows. They have their own version of the MTV Movie Awards. And so they have every year there's a bunch of award shows at the end of the year that are basically K Cons, but a little fancier.
So this is this is all very intriguing to me because it you're proving out the hypothesis here that super fans drive culture, but more importantly, they drive travel and ticket sales. Yes. Let's shift into that a bit. Like when you hear about a tour coming out for one of these K pop artists, What is the process that you go through?
Because you've been to how many concerts? K K pop concerts in total? Oh, I don't know, like a dozen maybe? Okay. But, But in shows in general. You're a music lover, so you've been to quite a few. Yeah. But the challenge with K pop concerts is that they only go to a handful of cities in the U.
S. typically. Especially if it's a larger group. And they'll always I don't know. I would love if someone from these large Korean companies could I would love to consult y'all because there has to be a better strategy around this because someone looks at the map and says, okay, we're going to go West Coast somewhere in the middle and East Coast and somehow like all of these K pop fans just have to like swarm into these four or five cities a lot of times, unless like Even in the last couple years, maybe a larger group.
No I would even take that back. Even Blackpink, who just announced their tour this past week it's only going to three cities. Which ones? Going to L. A. New York, and somewhere in the middle. Probably Las Vegas? No, they're not going to Las Vegas. They're not? Yeah. Which is frustrating for me, because I would love for them to go to Las Vegas.
So typically, when they do the routing for a particular tour, it's really based on venue size. Yes, yeah. So you graduate from arenas to stadiums smaller cap venues, those type of things. And depending on if it's a full world tour, they will select a city or destination with the right amount of seeding essentially.
Yeah, like BTS like I saw them at SoFi and I saw them at Allegiant Okay, Vegas, and I saw them at Giants Stadium in New York. Yeah, so yeah there I mean they're selling out stadiums So you're so your beef is with the selection of the destinations because there should be more there should be more Because I don't live in any, so that's my personal thing, I don't live in any of those cities, so I always have to travel for these concerts, but also I'm seeing this as someone, like a 40 year old woman who has reached a certain level of like financial freedom that I can do that, but, Which is key.
Which is key, but I think my other gripe about it though too is because, and I've talked about this on my own media, where the vast majority of K pop fans even though it's very diverse and there's older women and men and whatever, but it is younger women and they're dropping thousands of dollars and putting it on credit cards because, one, they're announcing the tours A month, six weeks out and it's definitely cau it's definitely strategic to cause people to have that scarcity mindset of the rush and like the FOMO and all of that.
But also I just looked at J Hope concert tickets, for example, and the the seats that just opened up because he sold them out, that they opened up the extra section that's obstructed. There's still 250 before taxes and fees, and that's not including having to get the flight and the hotel room.
It's easily 1, 000 every time you go to one of these concerts. And for someone who's Like just starting out their career or not even it's a big investment. It's a lot of money Yes, and they will buy all the merch and they will buy all the light sticks So it's a lot of money to be a kpop fan no, it's and if they're going to these major cities, whether it's New York, Las Vegas or Los Angeles those ticket prices are more expensive.
It's almost like when you look at an NBA team. Madison Square Garden, very expensive. But we can go to Cleveland and see the same teams play over there for probably a fourth of the price, right? I think what you're saying is, resonates in that if they had more of these affordable destinations that would help out the fan experience
it's been interesting for me. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina and there's been two K pop Larger K pop groups that's come to Charlotte. Which was like, very exciting for people, Cause it's, it usually goes to Atlanta. If it's gonna go somewhere, it's gonna go to Atlanta. Which is still a four hour drive.
And it was TXT, which is a fourth gen group. They're the baby brothers of BTS. So I love them also. And so I was so excited that I could literally walk to the venue from where I lived. Which I've never been able to do for a K pop concert. Wow. And and it was, What's lovely about K pop concerts, too, is that the fans, to your point, these create these experiences, so every K pop concert, there is some local group that's organizing a random dance play.
Have you seen one of these? No, but I've heard that for Taylor and a few others, and actually, this is a movement from in the travel industry from the destination perspective, that they're trying to gauge these various tours and then creating activations around it, so whether it's a Bracelet trading workshop, or they completely themed the buses and the taxis and all these things as Taylor or a K pop artist.
This is a new movement. And apparently, in, in this culture of K pop, this is something that's already been happening. There's this thing called random dance play because every K pop song has a specific choreography. Oh every K pop song. They're like a machine, the way that they produce these groups.
And so choreography is a core. Yes asset for all of yeah, so the random dance play is essentially Someone will organize where they put a playlist together of 30 second clips of random k pop songs And so they'll play it and then people have to go and do the choreography on the spot And so wow, yeah And people are good.
And people are amazing. Yeah. They literally will hear two beats of a song and be like, Okay, I know the entire choreography of this song. Wow. And it's and it's not easy choreography. Yeah. And I think that is obviously a very key part of K pop is the choreography. Taylor Swift isn't known for her dancing, right?
Correct. What's interesting is that, I've always wondered why aren't there brand activations around the random dance plays because it is organically Organized but it's like hundreds and hundreds of people. Sure. It's like a flash mob that could actually do that. It's like a flash mob but it's always it's like highly choreographed And like highly like the people's costumes are like all over the place.
This is not like thriller Where everyone can do it. This is very, you have to be a super fan. Yeah. To understand it. Yeah. And what it, what was interesting to me was It coming to Charlotte for the first time the buzz in Charlotte was y'all We have to show up and do our best so that they'll bring other acts here, right?
otherwise if they see that it's not sold out if they see that people aren't showing up early and like doing all the things that Like a normal concert does their fear was that they wouldn't come back Yeah, then this past year one of the biggest girl groups came this year. So that was cool,
okay, so That you've established yourself as a superfan. So in the, are you part of a fan club? So what's funny is that my husband is actually in the fan club. Where is AJ? I thought he was coming. I know. I thought he was coming, but. He he's actually the holder of our, cause they're, again, they're expensive.
So we're like, we don't necessarily need both of us to be in it. So he's the one who manages our, Like accounts and stuff. Okay. Yeah, so he's the one who's actually official BTS army So but you still here through osmosis, obviously, what are some of the challenge? There's obviously a ton of benefits whether it's a meet and greet early access special seating I guess those are the benefits But what are some of the challenges you have with being in the fan club?
Like I think there's a lot of emphasis put on access. Yeah And whether or not they deliver on that access to a fan club member is one piece. But in the ticket buying process what do you experience? There's always like a language challenge. Because all of the original information tends to come out in Korean first.
And then Google Translate usually isn't great for it. And then when they, or if they do translate it, it's like It still doesn't, it doesn't quite translate well enough for you to understand what's happening. It's not localized. Yeah. It's translated, but it's not localized to where if there's any slang terms or any particular things that would make it more relevant.
So as a prime example, last week when we went to the smaller group, my husband surprised me. I didn't know we were going to a K pop concert and he paid extra money because there was a high touch experience and so we were like, we don't know what that means. Okay, like high touch could mean, I was like, do we get to kiss them?
I don't get it, like what does high touch mean? But and probably in Korea, that's probably like a known term. Okay, and so What happened at the end of the concert is we got like soundcheck early, which that was to be expected But we're like, what is this high touch thing? and so they gathered everyone who had this color bracelet and we all had to wait and then And I thought that we would have some sort of like signing or something like that So I bought like posters or whatever High touch was literally like we got to high five them and on our way out and that was it
that's cool. Which is great. Yeah, you know what so but no photo with them And we're not you're not allowed to take a photo with that in that one So that we have to pay more there's different levels. Okay for that So when I say on the ticketing experience, it's not clear what each of those Like, where does it begin and end on what's the next level and the next level and the next level?
That always seems to be very unclear. What do these levels typically cost? The high touch experience I think was an extra like 50 bucks or something like that. But it went up to an extra 250, $300. But that's for this is for a group that just formed.
Yeah. This is not for BTS or black. No. BTS would be like tens of thousands of dollars at this point. Of course. And you're definitely not allowed to touch them. . So that's, that was, that's always a challenge. I think what is frustrating for a lot of people is as fans or fan fan club members you're supposed to get priority seating, but like, when Ticketmaster opens up a lot of the seats are already gone, and it's where did those tickets go?
And people just don't understand that, but I think what's been, what I don't understand why it's not translated here, is in Korea, to my understanding is that you really, you literally cannot transfer tickets. And so if you're really a fan club member, then you have to buy the ticket, and if you don't go, you don't go.
Versus here somehow people are still getting the fan club access, and then reselling them for double, triple the price, which really pisses me off as Not even for myself, but like for other people who truly can't afford it, like who are real fans who are not getting the access to that's incredibly frustrating which is it should be mitigated by the fact that you need to have an ID and a number, like in Korea, like you're supposed to show your photo ID that matches your ticket.
I did not realize that they're that strict on the transferring rules in Korea. They're really strict about it. Versus here, first of all you have to go through the Ticketmaster verified fan system. And then you can. Pretty much, you still have to qualify to be able to transfer the ticket if you resell it.
But they do prefer that you do it on Ticketmaster Resell when you do it. But setting the price is a whole nother situation. So have you experienced that where you were trying to get a resell ticket and it was just like, come on. I hate dynamic pricing. Oh, here we go. I really hate dynamic pricing.
To me, it's such a racket. It is. It's taken from actually hotels in a lot of ways, right? So you have demand coming in and limited amounts of inventory as certain percentages of that inventory gets utilized prices go up. Now, the percentages of how it goes up is never really clear to anybody You're looking at a screen trying to purchase or a phone trying to purchase so it's not really defined But what has been your experience because obviously I've already heard it from Taylor Swift fans and others on the on sale date Which is you're thinking you're gonna get the premium stuff if you're If you got seven tabs open and you're ready to go.
And which we have. We have a routine is me and my husband are BTS fans. My best friend is also a BTS fan. I have another friend and my sister in law got seven fans, which is another group. Yep. And then we have another set of friends who are like Blackpink fans. And so anyway, anytime there's any of those, we just have a thing where it's like we'll help each other out and all of us will get online at the same time and Someone will grab the tickets.
So it's you know, there's one BTS concert in particular that I literally had so much anxiety Okay, that I just gave up on the process I'm like, I'm just gonna wait till the resale tickets go up because it was too like chaotic. It was too much but I think what what we've been noticing recently with us a soloists coming out is Again, messed up.
I don't know. This is, I understand that this is not correct logic, but the tickets to see one of the BTS members being more expensive than seeing all seven, Like just doesn't that doesn't compute to you. But does he arguably have more followers? Really? No, he's one of the more popular.
No So they're just pricing him out for well, I think it's because since bts has gotten into the actual army the military Dynamic pricing only became a lot more prevalent in the last at least, I don't know, from when I first did. Yeah, a few years. Yeah, and from the time that BTS last toured together, which is like back in 2022, like, all seven of them the prices have tripled, and we're not even getting all of them, so it's like, why would I do that?
I'm just gonna wait and so and really the conversation I've had with other BTS fans like We're just gonna wait until all seven are back if we're gonna spend that much money then which then sucks for the soloist Yeah out here now amazing I Could see why that would be frustrating because what's the average ticket price?
That you're seeing and then what do you typically get? I know you're different than others. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah just from your experience Yeah, I mean We always go and check on the day of to see if it's worth it when we first look at the J Hope ones They were like tickets going for 1, 500 bucks but then You know since then it's died down a little bit.
So I was able to look at tickets for like 250 Okay. Yeah, so it's but these are bleeders, but these are like obstructed view Okay, because they opened up after everything right sold out and But then like the anchor in my brain is well, I saw all of BTS two nights In Las Vegas for less than that.
Yeah, so it's like hard to reconcile that you know as someone who's like just, I don't know, the equivalent would be like for New Kids on the Block fans, because I know your cousin is a New Kids on the Block fan it's oh you're going to pay more just to see Jordan.
Not even, Jordan would be a good one to see more if you saw, I don't know where they rank anymore, but Donnie or, Donnie Donnie's kind of popular too. The other guy. The guy who, Chris or, yeah. We don't even remember his name, that's what I'm saying. It would be like, it would be like him going on solo, it'd be like, but it's Triple their price and like it just doesn't make sense.
Yeah. How do you tell the guy? He's the discounted new kid Yeah, he's Jordan's brother right? No. Oh that John. Yes. Yes. It'd be like seeing John just Like why? Why would you do that's a parallel? I didn't think I would understand or I think that I would hear today, but I understand I get it that times five, but you have to pay five times the price.
That's like basically what's happening right now Okay, so that's frustrating when the on sale happens or you have a resell You have it. Now, Pivoting, you have to travel to all of these. Yes. So what is your preference in terms of lodging when you're going to see a K pop band? Yeah. Ideally, I want to be walking distance from the venue.
The venue. But I've traveled to New York, Atlanta L. A. and Vegas for these concerts. And I just came back from Vegas, and it is a core memory of mine that you know, obviously all the, hotel prices got completely jacked up in Vegas, of course, and we said at the link. So if Vegas like the link isn't anything fancy and it was like six hundred dollars a night And because it was so congested we had to walk from the link to Allegiant Stadium, which is not that's not close.
It's not close, and it's the desert. I had to stop every couple minutes just to by the, so that by the time I got to the concert I wasn't drenched in sweat. But it it was Physically challenging so I was like, oh i'm so glad all of these other girls are so much younger than me that they can Do this and they have the wherewithal and also because they're all wearing a lot less clothing Yeah me they're like out and they're like cute little tops and stuff and also people should know it's You know, it's tough to get to Allegiant because you have to cross the highway.
Yeah, it's not yeah It's not like you're walking on my sidewalks like you're literally walking across a highway Yeah, and they had to block off the street because there's so many no and I heard something so It's a big deal obviously when the NFL schedule comes out for the Raiders and the hotels obviously Withhold rates or they block it out until the schedule comes out, but think about it once you actually have a room and you're there You've got like 60, 000 seats in that stadium.
There's probably 3, 000 parking spots. Yes So you're forced to walk across the bridge from MGM or Luxor and either park there or stay there That's why even Excalibur rooms are like through the roof Versus where you stayed, it's probably in the middle of the strip, like directly across from Caesars.
I try to have a positive mindset about these things, and so what was fun was that Vegas did pay homage to BTS everything was purple even Bellagio and stuff was all playing BTS music, and and so that was fun, and there is something about crossing over the highway with a bunch of other random people who are all wearing the same stuff, fun.
Getting pumped for the show. Yeah. That's Las Vegas. Yeah. I think that's a very unique destination. Yeah. Los Angeles is a lot different. Yeah, we went to, we saw them in SoFi. Okay, did you stay in, it's in Inglewood, right? Yeah. Because most of the hotel product, if people don't know these destinations, it's really by the airport.
Yes. If you want to stay in West Hollywood, you're going to pay a thousand bucks a night. Did you stay at a hotel? Or did you get an Airbnb? a Hampton Inn or something like that. Like something like that. Yeah.
That level. And it was probably like 25 minutes from the venue. Which then turned into an hour and a half or whatever. Cause the Ubers can't even drop you off anywhere close. So they just drop you off at some like random place and then you still have to walk another. Yeah, 30 minutes and then it's Englewood and so like when the concert is done, we're like, okay, let's make sure That we're all together whatever So we figured it out because I think there's like a casino or so or like some sort of thing around Sofie.
So the so we went for two nights. Okay, and the first night we like We made the mistake of trying to call our uber and they could never find us and there's like a Billion cars and stuff. It's a concentration of requests and the search pricing goes up Yeah But then the second night we got real smart and we like Walked we walked another 20 25 minutes in the direction of whatever that building was and then we got picked up from that Lobby instead and that was like a much smoother thing, but like it was like military like we're like, okay What like we were like don't lose each other cuz you know again so many yeah, whatever and we're like, okay Everyone walk in that direction and walk as quickly as possible.
Okay, so that's Las Vegas, la when you come here to New York. Meadowlands, right? MetLife now. MetLife's. . That's Meadowlands dating you on that, that, that dated me quite a bit. Actually. I don't even live in the city anymore. Yeah. and that shows, yeah. But do you stay in Manhattan and we will take the bus or the. Or a train over? How does that work? I've done it where because you're gonna help millions possibly, of fans trying to figure, maneuver this
so a lot of my friends live here in New York, so we'll usually stay at one of their places at one their places, but they live in Long Island or like Queens, which is not convenient. It's another again, two hour ride, because we have to take the Long Island Railroad, we have to take an Uber to the Long Island Railroad, from the Long Island Railroad to the New Jersey Transit, and then still walk all the way to the Meadowlands.
For a BTS, I stayed in Newark, and we had to take the train one stop over, which was way better. But again one of my fond memories of that though, too, was like none of us could figure out where the train was, like, after the concert. Yeah. And and so there was just a bunch of us just singing randomly in the in the dark we're like, we don't know where we are or whatever, but we're all together, but you're all together, and you just had a great time. Yeah, and random people that we'd never met before. And you, yeah, and you said core memory. Yeah. Is that the vibe at these concerts, where everybody is just you have this common love for the artist, you've, some of you have come a long way to see them.
Is it is every fan just so welcoming and with open arms? And that's probably one of the reasons why you are a superfan, just the community is so welcoming. It's funny because I have my own business and I have told, my husband had talked about the fact that we want to cultivate This kind of community based off of what we've seen in kpop.
Wow. Yeah, like it's I actually did a presentation I did a business presentation was like business lessons. I've learned from kpop And this was a time before people really knew who BTS was, like at least here in the U. S. And I remember doing this presentation and explaining to people, BTS the only other artist this year that grossed more than them was Ed Sheeran.
Wow. And so they're like number two in terms of like Overall revenue for concerts and stuff and so I've learned so much from them about marketing and branding and Operations and stuff, but also when it comes to this idea of a third space, you know Like your first space is your home. Your second space is usually your work or your school for kpop fans like This culture is our third space.
It's where they feel like they belong. It feels it's like where they don't feel judged There are like fan wars and stuff like that where like certain groups are like, you know I don't like your group because whatever. Do they manufacture like almost like wrestling? Yeah, they're like manufactured beefs between the various companies whether it's Hybe or yeah, is that what happened?
I'm just guessing Yeah yeah, like for example, if there was like some manufactured beef where Espa and Eugene supposedly had B for whatever, but then they, the artists squashed it themselves by doing videos together and saying that has nothing to do with it. That's big, how do you typically book your travel when you're looking at going to these concerts? Yeah, so we figured out once the dates are are announced that we just book the hotel first and then we'll figure out the ticket situation later.
Ah but the idea is you know you're going there for them, but you want to get ahead of the rates essentially? Yeah. For the hotels. And since I do a lot of business travel I'm, I often can. Use my points for for the flights and stuff. But, the I'll take a recent example.
We went to the Mamo Awards, which was, like, my dream. It's for me, I was like, I feel like I'm going to the Grammys or the Oscars. Essentially it is. Yeah, and it was in West Hollywood. And Like we booked the hotel Long before we even understood like what was happening once we heard that the what the dates were We're like we're booking it and it was like eight months in smart.
Yeah. Yeah, that's smart because Most hotels will have at least a year out in advance this is one of the reason why we're bringing awareness to it because even hoteliers don't Understand these various cultures and what type of demand is going to come in so and I think there's a lot of missed opportunity So totally because what they'll typically do is like I think they're popular and then they'll just block it out versus doing regular revenue management techniques right where you scale down the rate and then you generate the demand and then you raise the rate as Same thing like dynamic pricing tickets, but from a hotel perspective and so we're trying to educate them to understand that these are real fans, this is real demand, and they're traveling specifically for this.
And so they need to be able to have these various activations in the lobby and so on and so forth to welcome them in and make sure that The next time they come back because they will come back. Yes that they're gonna get that business Yeah, and so what are some of the things you think and I know you probably thought about this a while What do you think from a super fans perspective both ticketing companies and Travel or hotels airlines should be thinking about around targeting someone like yourself
what's hard to understand about K pop culture is like the parasocial relationship is like another level than anything I've seen in American culture like when Swifties say that they're fans of like Taylor Swift it's not the same as like people who are fans of K pop fans because K pop artists are like are good or bad However, you want to look at it are cultivating this relationship where it really feels like you know them because like they're live streaming all the time and they're like Eating dinner with you or they're like showing them they're like, Oh, I had a really hard day today.
And here's what, Taylor Swift doesn't do that. She doesn't, she's not. Online chronically and like she's actually very private about her personal life And if you see anything about her personal life, it's definitely manufactured by her publicity Yeah, whereas k pop fans like it feels like you really know them.
So they're constantly streaming Is that a product of the company or they're saying? Hey, you're required to be on and I mean I'm sure they do it to engage the fans. No, there's definitely a requirement that they have to be on a certain amount of time and so some of the best moments like as a prime example was at when we were at metalands now met live Is Is when we were all lost and we couldn't figure out where we were going someone yelled Oh jin's streaming right now And so one of the members was back in his hotel room after the concert like eating noodles And so we're all like on the train watching him We just saw him like half an hour ago, he's just decompressing but puts the phone up.
Yeah So he went to his world. Yeah, so the scary thing for the Brian bring this up. Is that K pop fans can be like crazy. There's this term called saucing which is like It's like someone, like it's a K pop fan that's gone like too far like basically the borderline stalking and like that kind of stuff.
And people will look at like the curtains or like the composition of the room and figure out what hotel they're staying at. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Scary, but also, one of my friends, I don't, she's not gonna say she's a sasaeng, but she figured out that BTS was singing Intercontinental, and so that's where she books, that's where she always books now and so at KCON, a lot of the K pop artists Stay there.
Okay, and so Kate like the fans will just be hanging out in the lobby Just waiting but the nice thing is most kpop fans are very respectful They're not gonna try to touch you or whatever or try to bother you, but they just want to see you So so hold on a second. They're seeing a photo of baby Jin in his hotel room They're scouring online travel sites to find the photo that matches that particular hotel.
Because they know it's going to be somewhere in New York, for example. Of course. Or it's going to be whatever, right? Yeah. But there's like a kind of I remember, That actually wouldn't be that hard to do. No, it wouldn't be, especially because sometimes the K pop, the artists will mess up and there'll be like a menu or something on the table and stuff and it's like game over.
It's like literally game over, like within 30 seconds, 30 minutes, some fans will be downstairs. Okay. So I think there is like both, one there's a opportunity for like better security probably at these hotels. There you go, yeah. But also, like. Kpop artists are pretty good about interacting with their fans when they are in public or whatever So if they know like I have another friend who she's really good at figuring out where stuff is happening and again, she's respectful and stuff, but like to your point of having the brand activations to say here's a welcome bag or here's photo cards, or we're going to host the photo card trading event, like in our lobby and stuff.
I was really personally very frustrated with my hometown in Charlotte of like when TXT came, that there was like, there was nothing going on in the city that like That, that capitalized on that. Even like the other, the Korean restaurants.
They could've They didn't do anything. They couldn't, they didn't do anything. And it was like, there's like a Korean restaurant that's like very close to the venue. I was like, are they dumb? They would sell out so fast. Someone on their marketing team is messing this up. Falling asleep at the wheel.
Yeah. And so part something so simple for a lot of these hotels to be partnering with these local Korean small businesses and bringing the food or the culture because what happens with K pop too is like a lot of people spill over into like then K food and K beauty and K dramas and stuff and so there's a lot of opportunity for like really fun activations around that.
I think a misconception as well is that, I mean I'll ask you when you go to one of these shows, how much of the crowd The audience is American versus Korean American or just people who are like What do you actually see there as a mix because I think you know destinations in general They don't really know the cultures as well, so they don't want to offend anybody But I think like it's so ingrained in overall sort of pop culture at this point.
Yeah that It wouldn't be hard to create something around these events as a prime example, like the concert I went to, which was only like a hundred ish people, like in a very small group, Me and my husband and my friend, maybe two other people, were the only ones who were Asian. Really? Okay. Which is people would be pretty surprised by that. And we're not, none of us, and the three of us, none of us are Korean. Yeah. And I, when I looked around, cause I I don't know if anyone else experiences like as a, Minority person like if you go into a room you like immediately like just all the other room right to see who else What might look like you and in that room?
I was like Very few people it was a lot of Latino and black and white, of course, but my friend had pointed it out. She said, there's not a lot of Asian people here. And I'm like, I know. So it's a multicultural experience at this point, at least from an American perspective. Yeah. Yeah.
Interesting. But there is a common I would say respect and love of Korean culture. Okay. And while we were waiting for our high touch, high five thing people are overhearing us chat or whatever and then we start talking about like our favorite Korean food and we start talking about like our favorite dramas and stuff and so there's so many fun cultural things that people could do around it and food is such an easy one easy super easy one and because like for example like squid game is so popular right but one of the bts concerts one of the members dressed like squid game like in the concert and like You Even if you don't follow kpop a lot of people know squid game, right?
So there's all this crossover opportunity, obviously back to the hotels though. So you were talking about There should always be Yeah, that's really easy to say you have to throw up some videos on the screens up there I don't know why that's so hard. No, it shouldn't be. Yeah, you should have a separate business just consulting on That's what I'm saying.
Hire me. I'm really good at this. No, you're demonstrating that. I'm so glad you're here in New York. Not at the Meadowlands, but like here. From a hotel perspective, security is probably key. Just being conscious or maybe giving other activation spots, these type of trading card areas.
What else are your thoughts on the ticketing side? Because we started off talking about fan club and access and Getting verified and being able to transfer the ticket, but what would make this is it more communication to the fans? When the last the most recent BTS member that had a concert going up And mind you, our, in our group we have a group from a Korean tour we all met in South Korea and became friends and we live all over the country, all none of us live in the same cities and there's 20 ish of us.
I did not look at the chat for 24 hours. I came back to 179 messages of all of them trying to figure out, they could not figure out. Where, when the tickets were gonna go on sale, how how they're gonna purchase it what are some tips on how to make sure you find the best tickets it was just a mess and that's not a great way to start off your experience, and then, ultimately, most of the people didn't end up getting the tickets.
Really? Then they're waiting for the resale, but a lot of them will be priced out. Yes, we'll be, we'll end up being priced out The misconception about kpop that I've seen is like they while yes There's a lot of young fans.
There are a lot of older fans right and I have been I've been at concerts where You know, like it's the most adorable thing where there's like we say like ajummas and like a generational There's 67 year old women going to these bts concerts not because they're here with their like granddaughter They're there for themselves.
And so imagine these hoops that these people are having To figure out technologically and otherwise to do that. But what I also think is interesting is with the ticketing stuff, again I think why I'm probably so frustrated with it is because I know it's possible because knowing what the system is in Korea.
Granted, obviously, it's a much smaller country and whatever, but they sell out stadiums in Korea, too. And it's, and if you watch Korean or Japanese concerts, it just is so much more organized. Just generally speaking, yeah, a lot of that stems from the artists themselves and the promoter for it So like even in the case of here in the States when people are arguing about the ticket prices for let's say Taylor Swift or She's getting the majority of that fee and so almost that extra fee that Ticketmaster takes on the chin as hey It's your problem.
It does come from the promoter in the artists themselves. I think culturally in Korea They understand that they want everybody to come and so I think that's why it's more organized versus here You have how much money are you gonna make from it? So even if you found a solution through a reseller to cater to the super fan for a kpop here They're still all trying to make a buck.
Yeah, so the demand itself will just right expand And I think and anything that's a challenge with that would like the kpop culture is and again, it's like very collectivist Yeah, Asian type of environment is like that is so against the grain of the culture right itself Of the kpop culture itself Like like I said, like people spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars just to make these things to give out to random strangers so to feel like, you know I'm getting price gouge for being like a true fan like it's a little bit differently than and I'm like I've been a just a music fan in general and It is it feels It sounds silly, but like I can almost understand it for like I went to Beyonce like I like yeah I expected it there, but not in the kpop world is it true I think I read about this, but I think hype America is now doing their own promoter deals are not really using live nation so It could be shifting, yeah, it could be shifting to where it's more culturally relevant to what they're used to in Korea.
I don't know that for sure. Yeah, and I'm curious to see if anything from, I've, once I realized that essentially Scooter Braun and Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande are essentially under a hype label now I was like, whoa, like they're really big. They're a huge company now.
They're really big. So it's gonna be interesting to see how some of, I'm hoping that some of the Korean practices actually would. Yeah, filter in the other direction not just becoming more Americanized. It remains to be seen but that's an interesting point We should all keep an eye on that.
Yeah, it's not somewhere that Hybe you know The CEO of Hybe actually views like Hybe as a technology company. Yeah, so maybe they'll have their own ticketing at some point. He said that yeah, I mean he's put it out there and Me coming from the finance world. Like I would really love to see more of the blockchain technology being used in ticketing.
Because to me that tickets are the prime example of a blockchain. Like, where that technology makes sense. Verifiable ownership. Yeah, and there's only one specific there's only this one seat. Yeah. That exists that isn't any other seat. Because it's, even if it's right next to the other one.
So it would make sense to do that. So I don't understand why that's not already implemented. Oh, there's a lot of reasons why. Yeah. Yeah. But But that's why I think it's always so interesting that seems like a very a very logical use case for that type of technology.
So to wrap things up, like what's the dream travel destination to see BTS? Is it Korea? Is it Seoul? Or would you see them in another exotic destination? Oh, I would see them in any destination. That was a loaded question. You're like I'll go anywhere for them. So the last BTS member is supposed to be discharged from the army in the summer.
And there's talk already that they're probably going to do a tour in 2026. It seems likely. And so I turned 40 yesterday and I Happy birthday! Thank you. But I've been telling people that I am retiring, truly, because like I teach financial personal finance stuff. And, but the only reason that I haven't like fully retired is because I'm a BTS fan because that is expensive.
So I'm saving up my I've already hit my financial independence number, but now I have to add like my BTS amount of money that I need to spend. So you just want to uplevel what you're doing now. I want to go to I got inspired. I met someone who really loved I can't remember which group it was.
It was like Green Day, something like that. And he went wherever they went. Yeah. And so I was like, one year of my life, I'm just gonna follow Just follow them. Follow them. It's kinda like Grateful Dead or Phish. Yes.
I feel like K pop's an interesting one. Cause you're speaking to a, to an audience where there are different levels of this travel and ticketing thing. Where you could do very premium. Experiences. Would you, have you done one of those? Would you do one of those? I would do one of them. I I finally got a, Even though I love all of this stuff, I'm still very frugal.
And I Going back to your question of ideal destination, like I haven't been to Thailand yet. So I'd love to see them in Thailand. Yeah. I'm considering going to Barcelona They always stop in Spain and they always stop in Mexico City. So Mexico City would be an easy one. But I really should and need to plan to see them in the Philippines because that's like where I'm from.
That's, okay. That makes a whole lot of sense. Have you been back? I have not been back. I'm going later this year. Are you? Did you grow up there? No. My, my husband was born in the Philippines, but I was born here. But he left when he was like two. So we haven't seen them back in a long time.
But Filipinos are huge K pop fans. No, no doubt. No doubt. They just had this big Olivia Rodrigo show there. Oh my god, yeah. But that's another prime example, right? She's you will not price gouge my fans here. Yeah. So it's possible. It wasn't a Live Nation show. It was in the Philippines.
Yes, it was in the Philippines. Thank you for spending some time with us here on Tickets to Travel. Superfans. Huge subject. And I thank you for bringing your experience. Thanks again. Thanks so much for having me. Yes. Awesome. Yay. Did you have fun? Yeah,