Global Experience Industries. Jens Christensen

Disneylands are being opened in Hong Kong and China, and more are expected to come. Disneyland Tokyo and Tokyo Disney Sea are the two largest Asian Pacific amusement parks. Except for Disneyland and Ocean Park in Hong Kong, all the major parks are located in Japan and South Korea. Of the other media conglomerates, Universal, Paramount and Warner have, or are, planning parks in Asia Pacific, too, just as in the US and Europe. China and India, in particular, contain a large potential of new parks.

      Performing Arts

      The Performing arts include all kinds of arts and onstage performance, such as theatre, literature, dance (solo, partner, group, ballet, performance, participation, etc.), music (folk, popular, classic), painting, sculpture and circus.¹¹⁸ Arts are performed in theatres, concert halls, the open air, or circus tents and arts are created and exhibited in galleries, museums, halls of institutions, companies and open places. Arts may be divided into two groups: One is the group of Western arts that make up an almost shared history since the Renaissance, with national variations. Two, is the group containing pre-industrial based arts of Asia, Africa and Latin America that come in many different kinds. Although the traditional art objects of developing countries are sold to tourists and others throughout the world and provide some income for poor people, this accounts for only a very small portion of global arts revenues. The dynamic majority of the world arts business is based on Western performances in theatres, music halls, etc.

      Until the breakthrough of movie pictures and television, arts lived more or less in separated worlds. Theatres performed drama, opera and ballet, based on classical or modern literature. In concert halls, symphony orchestras played classical music. Popular music was played in music halls and elsewhere. Visual arts created paintings and exhibited them in galleries, etc. As the electronic media of entertainment proliferated and commercialization increased, all artforms increasingly intertwined. The same story began to appear in all forms, starting perhaps as a book or a movie picture or television film and moving on to the theatre and music hall. Spill-over effects can be seen in performing arts as they are in all other entertainment industries.

       The Performing Arts Market

      It is hard to get an accurate estimate of the world performing arts industry, but most of the income stems from box revenues and a significant share from private funding, including arts sales on commission and on location.¹¹⁹

      The problem of counting the revenues of performing arts is shown by an American economic report on the non-profit arts and culture organizations.¹²⁰ According to this report, about 100,000 non-profit organizations enjoy and inspire Americans in thousands of towns and cities. They generate billions of dollars in revenues for local businesses that supply them with merchandise and services, as well as pay taxes, employ millions of people, and are a cornerstone of tourism. In the US, they created revenues of $166 billion in 2005, up from $134 billion in 2000 and $75 billion in 1990, of which 40 percent came from organizations and 60 percent from event-related spending by their audiences, equivalent to several million jobs. These numbers include the wider economic impact of non-profit arts performance organizations, however. Direct revenues and income are much smaller, perhaps $10 billion.

      Box office revenues in profit arts performing companies were also an estimated $10 billion in 2005, including estimated private funding of $5 billion. It makes a total of $25 billion for the US in 2005 and $15 billion for profit companies. Total West European arts performance revenues are probably of the same size as the US numbers, as are the revenues of the rest of the world. Including non-profit arts performance organizations, it results in a world total of $75 billion in 2005, with a projected $90bn in 2010 (Table 8).

      The English-language profit performing arts are centred on New York’s Broadway and London’s West End. Succeeding plays and musicals are the revenue drivers of these two centres, and they are often staged in other parts of the world, too. Large audiences are also found in opera houses and theatres. From 2000 to 2005, Broadway shows had an annual audience of 11 to 12 million people in New York and a similar audience on road shows, American opera houses 5 to 6 million and non-profit professional theatres and symphony orchestras each about 30 million.

TABLE 8 The Global Performing Arts Market in $bn, 2001-2010

      Source: Howkins. The Creative Economy, 102-103. US Census (2007). Statistical Abstracts/Performing Arts: www.census.gov. Americans for the Arts. Arts & Economic Prosperity III. The Economic Impact of Non-Profit Arts Organizations.

      Events

      Celebration is as old as humanity.¹²¹ We commemorate birth, life and death; discovery, victory, and remembrance; history, new beginnings, and patriotism; food, shelter, and family; where we come from, who we are, and what we believe; careers, achievements, and milestones; music, sports, military prowess, children, love, hopes, community, beauty, talent and peace on earth. The need to celebrate seems inherent in everything we do.

      In the course of time these celebrations have changed. From informal affairs to spectacular productions requiring new sets of skills, experience, creativity, tools, financing, planning and leadership, celebration has often evolved into a business and an industry with professional standards and expectations, academic programs and educational certifications, and with new demands and challenges every day. The events industry has become a worldwide affair, including international organizations for professionals and companies, too.¹²² Globally, it is estimated to include some one million regularly re-occurring events (including community festivals, parades, fairs, air shows, sporting events, carnivals, car shows, art shows, flower shows, corporate events, balloon rallies and more), with an estimated economic impact in the hundreds of billions of dollars and combined attendances that touch virtually every life on the planet. Each person has his events through his life. Each family has its events to celebrate birth, confirmation, exams, weddings, anniversaries, vacations, etc. Each company and organization has its events: meetings, exhibitions, parties, team building, anniversaries, special occasions, annual meeting, etc. Each industry has its events: conferences, trade show, exhibitions, annual meeting. Each local community has its events: festivals, music performance, sports events, elections, etc. Each nation has its events: national championships, elections, royal birthdays, festivals, etc. International events are celebrated, too: World Cup, OL, etc.

      Business, culture and sports events therefore are fields of increasing economic and cultural importance – for citizens, business, local communities and nations. Events are of many kinds and sizes, from great international sports, cultural or political events at one end of the spectrum to family events at the other end. Large events are attractive because they create employment and economic revenues for businesses and state and offer people experiences of great quality and excitement. In addition, international events serve to upgrade nations’ and cities’ facilities which qualify for new events and increased tourism, too. Winning in international competition to become the organizer of great events is based on long-term planning, hard and professional work. That includes such international events as the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games and the America’s Cup. Other recurring events include the London Marathon, New York Marathon and Berlin Marathon, the Cannes Film Festival and Vienna New Years Eve Concert.

      Although sport events, concerts, music and film festivals and other cultural events are an important part of events per se, there is much more to events than that. Most events actually take place in the business world, such as exhibitions, trade shows, the launch of new products, conventions, meetings, career and job centers, company parties, receptions and other business occasions. Business events are arranged for the same reasons as they are in private and entertainment contexts, except that they are done for commercial reasons. Great experiences will always be remembered. They tighten bonds between friends, customers, employees and business relations. ‘Be in touch’, may be the slogan.

      In business events, all kinds of media are used on the one hand, but on the other hand it is the face-to-face communication, which