Unsold Tickets Cost the UK Economy 629 Per Seat, New Study Finds [Video]

Editor’s Note: This article is a sponsored post by viagogo

Unsold or unused tickets cost the UK economy an average of £629 (around $800) per seat, a new study led by the Centre for Economics and Business Research has found.

In turn, the secondary ticket market contributes £733 million (around $930 million) to the UK economy, partly due to non-ticketing revenue spent at local bars, restaurants, hotels, and retail businesses, supporting nearly 8,000 full-time jobs.

The study, commissioned by online ticket platform viagogo, examined the financial impact of unsold or unused tickets on the economy.

For those who purchased tickets through the secondary market in the last year, the study found that just 16% of the money spent went toward tickets. For example, fans who events such as Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” spent an average of £715, with £112 being on the ticket, and a further £603 on retail (22%), hospitality (37%), and travel (13%).

Bethan Flanagan, an artist …