Beyond travel, the report added that live events lead to the mobilising of a large temporary workforce
Beyond soaring ticket prices and full venues, India’s live-events industry is now also contributing significantly to tourism and local economies.
According to a recent report from KPMG, the live events and entertainment market in India, which grew 44 per cent to ₹13,000 crore in 2026, is stimulating the economy indirectly. Events here include concerts, music festivals, comedy shows, plays and other occasions with a live audience.
The report suggests that, on average, every ₹1 spent in event related expenditure results in total economic activity of ₹1.46 aided by indirect expenses across travel, hotels, restaurants, local transport, shopping and merchandise.
Travel is one among the major contributors in indirect expenses with outstation visitors accounting for nearly three-fourths of total spending while their average spending is more than five times that of local attendees, the report added.
Rikant Pittie, CEO & Co-founder, EaseMyTrip suggests that event-led travel tends to generate higher overall trip spending than regular leisure breaks, even though the duration is often shorter.
“On top of the event, travellers are spending across flights, hotels, local transportation, dining and accommodation nearby. We are also seeing some travellers extend their stay by a day or two, adding sightseeing and local experiences to the event-led trip,” he said.
Pittie added that around major concerts and large-format events weekends, hotel demand in host cities increase by around 30-35 per cent year-on-year. Quoting industry estimates, he suggested that in 2025, more than 5.6 lakh Indians travelled across cities specifically for concerts.
Vinod Gopal, Director at Red Chariots and Vice President South at Events and Entertainment Management Association mentioned that around major concerts and conferences, hotel prices can shoot up exponentially, sometimes reaching seven digit figures.
He suggests that for the industry to sustain its growth, there will need to be much larger infrastructure push particularly in hotels, exhibition centres, large-format venues and supporting transport infrastructure.
“There needs to be a major infrastructure push to supplement the events industry. In China, there are entire cities that are built with the events market in mind and have multiple exhibition centres, hotels, etc. We need something similar if we want to host large scale events,” he said.
Beyond travel, the report added that live events lead to the mobilising of a large temporary workforce in functions like production, logistics, security and catering. They also create businesses for local vendors, with KPMG estimating that around 55 per cent of event expenditure is contracted to suppliers within the host city.
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