The Issues Of Incomplete K-Pop World Tours

Over the years, K-Pop really expanded itself worldwide. What used to be exclusive to Korea started spreading all over the world, and now we are seeing overseas dates for concerts almost all the time, and even events such as Pop-up stores or even fansigns are starting to be organized outside of Korea, and even Asia. With all that, it's easy to believe that fans are more than satisfied, however, it is a bit more complicated.

Indeed, fans are getting access to events more than they ever did before. Yet, if it all looks perfect and so enjoyable, there are a few points that are often left behind, and make some fans unable to enjoy these events destined for overseas fans. May it be the lack of cities included in World Tours or the lack of organization or the privileged of some fans or countries, fans actually have solid reasons to still be upset over some matters concerning K-Pop overseas activities. Let's go over them right away!

1. Is it okay to call a World Tour as such when so many countries are missing?

The principle of a World Tour is that it should include countries from a bit of all over the world. The major problem K-Pop is facing regarding that matter is that most of the time, the World Tour are including only a few countries and even fewer cities per country. When we see that some World Tours are only counting 3 Asian countries, the U.S.A, and sometimes one European country, can we really call it a world tour? It is true that due to a restrained budget, it is hard to fit many countries in a single tour, but seeing how the countries are always the same for all the groups' World Tour, it seems right to question the equity when it comes to which fans will have a chance to see their favorite group.

2. The lack of cities for each country included in World Tours.

If World tours do not include many countries, they include even fewer cities. Some cities get up to 3 dates of the show while some don't even see their groups passing close by. It is simply normal for fans to complain about this. Of course, having the groups passing by the big cities is a must, but some fans also leave really far from the big cities and they do not always have the possibility to fly to the location of the concerts. So instead of having the same stop each tour, fans might be happy to see some change in the location for the next K-Pop World Tour, whoever is flying over the world next.

3. The extra budget engendered by the lack of diversity in the location

As mentioned before, K-Pop World Tour often lacks a lot of parts of the world is their so-said World Tour. It is considered that all fans attending the concert are rarely all from the city where the show is held. With this being said, fans who come all the way to some cities only for a concert have many extra expenses to include for this single event. The concert tickets aren't cheap, to begin with, but fans who come from other cities or even countries have to add a plane or train ticket, and often a hotel or guest house expenses to the original price fans living around the area of the show won't have to be bothered with. Put this way, it does seem quite unfair that some fans have to pay so many extra expenses while others don't for attending the exact same show.

4. Privilege of the regular countries or cities coming up on the World Tour stops.

As mentioned before, most of the time, the World Tours for K-Pop groups are limited to a few countries in Asia and the U.S., but it almost feels like a miracle when Europe is included. Because of this, not only do some fans have to do double efforts to be able to see their idols, but some fans also get privileged. Let's say that the "X K-Pop group" is passing by New York. They're doing this for their first, second, and third World Tour. But this group never passed by Chicago for example. That means that Fans living in New York - or having the necessary resources to attend the New York concert - only will get a chance to see their idols. Those fans can see this "X K-Pop group" up to three times while some other fans will never have a chance to meet at least once. It is unfair, let's be honest. That is why the diversity in countries and cities during World Tour is so important.

Of course, on the agencies' side, it isn't easy to add countries and cities at fans' request, they have a budget to fi tin, and fans also have to consider all it takes to organize such big events as World Tours. But we can hope that little by little, the voice of fans excluded from the World Tours because of those reasons will be heard and help make a change and that the agencies will find a balance to satisfy the most fan possible.