... Why travel belongs to audiences who are obssessed with something in 2026 and beyond.

As we explored in our global Travel Trend Report, the current travel landscape is being shaped by a powerful shift: travellers are no longer motivated solely by sightseeing, but by passion, personal interests and identity-driven experiences, and with this emerges a globally growing wave: fandom tourism.

From anime pilgrimages and K-pop concert trips to collectable launches and fan conventions, "culture as currency" has become one of the strongest forces influencing global travel demand.

For travel agents, this creates an important opportunity. Fandom travellers are typically purposeful planners, highly engaged in the destinations they visit, and often willing to travel further and spend more to pursue the experiences they care about most. Rather than competing on price alone, agents can create value by helping clients build complete trips around the events, communities and cultural moments that matter to them. 

Below, we explore the key fandom-driven segments reshaping travel demand and the opportunities they create.

Global Tourism Drivers: Anime Pilgrimages, 'Hallyu', and East Asian Media

While recent years have seen a boom in set-jetting and screen tourism, anime, manga, K-drama and C-drama-inspired travel is increasingly moving into the mainstream.

These media forms have long motivated dedicated fans to travel, but growing interest in East Asian culture across Western markets is turning fandom travellers into a significant tourism audience. Destinations connected to popular entertainment franchises are now recognised as major travel catalysts, driving both visitation and spending.

South Korea: K-Pop and K-Drama Tourism Surges

Inbound tourism numbers reached a staggering 18.9 million for South Korea in 2025, with foreign card spending surpassing 2 trillion won for the first time in May of that year alone.

While international interest in South Korean popular culture, known as "Hallyu", has been growing for years, demand is now accelerating thanks to the rising global appeal of K-Pop, K-Dramas and lifestyle trends such as Korean beauty.

Popular K-Drama filming locations including Bukchon Hanok Village, Gangnam COEX and Naksan Park have seen tourist spending increase by more than 50% in some cases. At the same time, visitors are increasingly seeking immersive, local and 'everyday' experiences: tourist spending at instant photo booths rose 65%, internet cafés 36%, karaoke rooms 18% and nail salons 17%.

K-Pop remains a major economic force, with a global fandom of more than 156 million people and contributing at least 0.3% of Korea's GDP. According to Billboard's 2025 year-end Boxscore, K-Pop achieved its highest-ever tour revenue penetration, accounting for 7.7% of the top 100 global tour grosses.

Recent milestones highlight the scale of demand: ENHYPEN's 2025 Coachella performance attracted more than 400,000 livestream viewers, making it the second-highest livestrream viewership in Coachella history; J-Hope's "Hope on the Stage" tour grossed $84.7 million and sold out all 33 shows, the highest grossing tour by a Korean solo artist ever; while Stray Kids' dominATE World Tour welcomed more than 2.15 million attendees across 53 shows worldwide, breaking K-Pop touring records. And with powerhouse BTS returning for their 2026/27 comeback tour, the expectation is that this wave of global interest, attendance and spending will only continue to grow.

Trips motivated by K-Pop or on-set filming locations, for example, often extend far beyond the concert or location itself. Travellers typically combine performances and location stops with sightseeing, shopping, themed attractions and local experiences, creating opportunities to package accommodation, transfers and activities into a complete itinerary.

Set-Based Tourism and Anime Pilgrimages

Japan welcomed 14 million international visitors during the first four months of 2025 alone, representing a 24.5% increase on the previous year, which was already the strongest year for inbound tourism in the country's history.

Anime tourism continues to play an important role. The Japan Tourism Agency reports that visitors travelling specifically to anime and film-related locations account for around 7.5% of inbound visitors in recent years.

Known as seichi junrei ("pilgrimage to sacred places"), this trend sees fans travelling to real-world locations connected to beloved series. Fans of Attack on Titan, for example, regularly visit Hita City, the hometown of creator Hajime Isayama.

The trend extends into China, where Hengdian World Studios in Zhejiang, often referred to as "China's Hollywood", serves as the filming location for around 70% of the country's historical and wuxia dramas and attracts millions of visitors annually. 

International fans are also increasingly making pilgrimages to destinations featured in or which formed the inspiration for popular C-Dramas, Light Novels and donghua, including Yunnan Province and Suzhou. While in Shanghai, the city is regularly overrun with sprawling advertisement banners and time-limited pop-ups for popular character birthday events and series announcements, which form highly desirable photo opportunities.

For agents, these travellers present opportunities to create personalised itineraries that combine media-inspired destinations with accommodation, attractions and authentic local experiences. This aligns closely with wider traveller demand for immersive travel explored in our article on the rising demand for local travel experiences.

Opportunities for Travel Agents

Travel agents can tap into growing demand by:

• Building itineraries around anime, manga, K-Pop, K-Drama and C-Drama locations.
• Aligning travel plans with concert schedules, fan events and cultural festivals.
• Creating multi-city itineraries inspired by favourite series, artists or filming locations.
• Packaging accommodation, transfers and local experiences into seamless fandom-focused journeys.

Through Bedsonline, agents can access accommodation, transfers and thousands of activities worldwide to create highly personalised travel experiences for these audiences.

Register your agency today to start offering exceptional and highly personal travel experiences today—or log in to your Bedsonline account.

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Collectable Tourism: When Products Become Travel Motivators

Collectables are increasingly acting as travel catalysts rather than simple souvenirs. Today's fans are travelling specifically to acquire products that offer exclusivity, status and cultural relevance.

The Labubu Effect

Labubu, the viral POP MART collectable, has blurred the boundaries between fandom, retail and travel while generating billions in revenue.

Demand has become so intense that one life-size Labubu sold for more than US$170,000 at auction in 2024, demonstrating how collectables can evolve into high-value cultural symbols.

Pokémon: the 'Gotta Catch 'Em All' Mindset

Pokémon has spent nearly three decades expanding beyond entertainment into retail, attractions, events and destination experiences.

Pokémon Centers in Tokyo, Osaka and Shibuya continue to attract visitors seeking region-exclusive merchandise, thanks to region-exclusive products, café experiences and limited-edition releases with product launches regularly generate long queues and selling out immediately. 

Recent Pokémon GO Fest events in New York generated approximately US$127 million in economic impact, and time-limited collaborations with major attractions including London's Natural History Museum and Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum have generated such strong demand that these pop ups had to close, in some cases, to deal with the crowds.

Considered together, both these examples demonstrate how collectables and franchises have evolved into experience-led, destination-driven consumption. Fans are highly-motivated, and increasingly travelling specifically to access exclusive merchandise and limited-time experiences.

Café Pop-Ups and Pop-Culture Conventions

Themed cafés, merchandise launches and fandom exhibitions are increasingly becoming travel anchors in their own right.

This reflects broader tourism trends. As we explored in our article on cultural and local experiences, cultural tourism now accounts for around 40% of global tourism revenues, while more than 70% of travellers participate in at least one cultural activity per trip. Such pop-ups align with this shift because they combine storytelling, retail, food and social interaction within a highly shareable format.

Convention tourism remains equally important. Anime Expo in Los Angeles recently attracted more than 410,000 attendees from over 65 countries and generated approximately $10 million in economic impact; making it one of the year's most significant tourism events in the United States.

Annual Comic Con events in San Diego, New York, London and Tokyo, for exampe, continue to attract hundreds of thousands of attendees each year, with more regional events continuing to draw international crowds. Rising attendance figures and growing international participation demonstrate how fandom tourism has moved beyond niche status to become a mainstream travel motivator.

Music Tourism: The Heartbeat of Fandom Travel

Music tourism remains one of the most powerful travel motivators worldwide. In 2025, the global music tourism market was valued at $103.7 billion and is forecast to reach US$330 billion by 2033, with travellers aged 18-34 accounting for 64% of total spending in this sector.

Major tours routinely drive demand spikes, with hotel and flight searches increasing by more than 90% around event dates.

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour generated more than US$1 billion in revenue, while Bad Bunny's San Juan residency drew 400,000 visitors and generated approximately US$200 million for the local economy.

Meanwhile, Queer Destinations, who launched the Travel Conscious Platform in partnership with HBX Group, offer curated packages for Shakira’s Madrid residency. The packages combine concert tickets with stays at "Committed" hotels where 100% of staff have completed LGBTQ+ sensitivity training, appealing to value-driven travellers seeking inclusive travel experiences alongside major entertainment events.

For agents, music tourism presents opportunities to package accommodation, transfers and destination experiences around events that travellers are already committed to attending.

How Travel Agents Can Benefit from Fandom Travel

As fandom travel becomes increasingly mainstream, agents can create value by helping travellers turn passion-led journeys into seamless travel experiences.

Key opportunities include:

• Building itineraries around anime, gaming, music and entertainment experiences.
• Combining accommodation, transfers and activities into tailored packages.
• Creating trips around regional product launches, exhibitions and fan events.
• Leveraging demand generated by concerts, conventions and festivals.
• Developing content and marketing aligned with emerging cultural trends.

Using Bedsonline's portfolio of accommodation, transfers and activities, agents can package these experiences into complete, personalised journeys while saving time through a single booking platform.

Register now to unlock all the tools and products needed to elevate every experience:

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Fandom Travellers Are a Growing Opportunity

Today's fandom traveller is informed, motivated and willing to invest in experiences that reflect their interests and identity.

Whether travelling for a K-pop concert, anime pilgrimage, collectable launch, convention or major music event, these travellers tend to plan ahead, stay engaged throughout the journey and spend meaningfully in destination.

For travel agents, that makes fandom tourism more than a trend. It represents a growing audience seeking expert guidance, curated recommendations and seamless travel experiences.

For more insights into the trends shaping global travel demand, explore our Travel Trend Report: