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The scramble for tickets to K-pop band BTS’ comeback tour, which comes after a four-year hiatus, has seen Mexico’s president appealing to her South Korean counterpart to add more shows in her country.<\/p>\n
“I wrote a letter to the [president] of Korea… I still haven’t received the answer, but let’s hope it’s positive,” Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday.<\/p>\n
BTS will hold three shows in Mexico City in May, as part of its 79-date world tour after a four-year hiatus. Tickets were wiped out in less than 40 minutes, local media reported.<\/p>\n
Some fans have also accused Ticketmaster and resale platforms of dynamic pricing, prompting an investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While on Ticketmaster, the official sales channel, tickets were going for between 1,800 pesos and 17,800 pesos ($100 to $1,030; \u00a376 to \u00a3750), resale platforms were offering them for between 11,300 to 92,100 pesos, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n
Mexico’s consumer watchdog has sanctioned resale platforms StubHub and Viagogo for “abusive and disloyal practices” over the ticketing process.<\/p>\n
About a million young people were vying for 150,000 BTS concert tickets, Sheinbaum said on Monday.<\/p>\n
“This group, BTS, is very popular among young Mexicans,” she said.<\/p>\n
Spotify lists Mexico as K-pop’s fifth-largest market worldwide, with streaming of the genre’s songs growing more than 500% in the country in the last five years. <\/p>\n
Sheinbaum wrote to South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung after being told by local concert promoter Ocesa that the band’s packed itinerary made adding shows unfeasible.<\/p>\n
Seoul’s presidential office and foreign ministry have declined to comment on the matter, according to South Korean media.<\/p>\n
BTS has not released music as a group since June 2022, as they took a break to explore individual music careers and later underwent mandatory military service.<\/p>\n
The septet’s globe-spanning comeback tour \u2013 likely to be one of the biggest tours of the year \u2013 will kick off with three nights in South Korea’s Goyang Stadium on 9 April, before travelling across across Asia, Europe and America.<\/p>\n
According to Billboard, the group and their record label Hybe stand to make more than $1bn (\u00a3740m) from the tour, across concerts, merchandise, licensing, album sales and streaming revenue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n