The Stage

Broadway tourism back to pre-9/11 level

Published Thursday 23 March 2006 at 14:15 by Judd Hollander

After four years, the number of foreign tourists coming to Broadway has finally reached its pre-September 11, 2001 level, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers’ annual report.

During the 2004/5 season, 1,302,590 international visitors attended a Broadway show. That total is on a par with figures for 1999-2000 of 1,320,617. It marks a significant improvement on figures from 2000/1 to 2003/4, which were 1,106,284, 525,834, 651,093 and 1,241,786, respectively. Additionally, internet purchases of theatre tickets have drastically increased over the last five years, with 29% of those surveyed mentioned that as the preferred method of purchase, up from 7% in 1999-2000.

The report, entitled The Demographics of the Broadway Audience for 2004/5, is the result of a series of 25 separate surveys administered by the league’s research department at 75 individual performance times from June 2004 to June 2005. Shows were selected on a quarterly basis with a proportionate number of musicals, plays, original works, revivals and long-running shows sampled.

“We are delighted to see that the international visitor numbers for Broadway have continued to rebound to post 9/11 levels,” commented league president Jed Bernstein. “We have been working hard to bring back foreign tourists as they are a vital part of the Broadway audience and contribute significantly to the city’s economy as a whole.”

However, in terms of advance ticket purchases, things were quite different from 2001. Last year, only 32% of audience members purchased tickets more than a month in advance, compared to 40% during the 2000-2001 season.

The most noticeable difference between 2004/5 and the previous year was the resurgence of popularity of plays on Broadway. Attendance at plays jumped from 1.57 million to 1.97 million during this period, while playing weeks increased from 355 to 427. Meanwhile, overall ticket sales to musicals decreased from 10.02 million to 9.54 million while playing weeks dropped from 1089 to 1040. Overall, 11,527,349 Broadway tickets were sold in 2004-2005, down slightly from the previous year’s total of 11,605,480.

In terms of age, theatregoers under 18 accounted for nearly 1.2 million tickets in 2004-2005 but that total represented a drop from 1.3 million the previous year (from 11.2% to 10.4%). This is somewhat disquieting information for producers who count on young theatregoers to be the Broadway audiences of the future. However the 1.2 million total does represent a 160% increase from the 4% figure from 1980-81. Elsewhere in this category, 3.16 million theatregoers between 50 and 64 attended a Broadway show in 2004-2005, the highest figure for this group in the past decade.

The average age of the Broadway theatregoer was 42.4 years, the same as the year before and slightly younger than past seasons. The average age for a musical theatregoer was 41.1 years, compared to 49.7 years for those attending plays. International visitors to Broadway were the youngest overall (36.9 years), while theatregoers from New York City were 43.1 years on average and those from the suburbs of the city averaged 44 years of age.

Founded in 1930, the League of American Theatres and Producers is the official trade association for the commercial theatre industry. Their 500-plus members include theatre owners and operators, producers, presenters, and general managers in more than 140 North American cities, as well as suppliers of goods and services to the theatre industry.