More and more music lovers are venturing abroad to attend performances.
Beyoncé fan Shelby Messing says she saved at least $1,000 (about $1,335 Canadian) by traveling to Spain to see her idol perform in Barcelona as part of her Renaissance World Tour.
She estimates that she spent up to US$3,000 (about CAD$4,005) on her two-week trip, including the cost of a round-trip flight (Atlanta-Barcelona), accommodation and a general admission ticket to a concert at US$227 -dollars (about 303 CAD). ) and a bonus outing, CBS MoneyWatch reported.
She reportedly told the US website that she saved hundreds of dollars at this concert because tickets are relatively cheap in Spain, where the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) has cracked down on disproportionately high entry fees for these types of events .
The Beyoncé admirer would only have paid twenty dollars on top of the price of her ticket, while that type of fee would have cost her almost 50% of the face value of her ticket in the United States, she told CBS MoneyWatch.
Another Beyoncé fan, Triada Cross, reportedly used her credit card points to travel to Germany from Dallas to see the American star. She reportedly paid a total of US$2,850 (approx. CAD3,804) to attend a performance in Hamburg and another in Frankfurt. Including airfare, a five-day hotel stay, and a train ride between the two cities, she estimates that she paid $3,525 (approximately CA$4,705) for her entire trip.
In comparison, in the United States, VIP tickets for the Renaissance World Tour can cost as much as $5,007 (approximately $6,684 CAD) on Ticketmaster.
The platform would control ticket sales for about three-quarters of major concert halls in the United States, according to estimates lawmakers cited at a Senate hearing on corporate practices in January. The latter would adjust ticket prices in line with popular demand, according to researcher Ron Knox, who works at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an advocacy group focused on corporate power.