Assam emerges as India's next concert economy hub: BookMyShow and EY-Parthenon report projects ₹700 Crore economic opportunity in the next five years

From a Headline Concert to a Measurable Economic Engine

The BookMyShow and EY-Parthenon report highlights Post Malone’s first-ever India solo headline concert in Guwahati as a case study to demonstrate how live entertainment can generate tangible economic value across tourism, hospitality, mobility, retail and local services. According to BookMyShow’s and EY-Parthenon’s estimates, the concert generated ₹43 crore in total economic impact across multiple industries, including ₹32 crore injected directly into Assam's economy through attendee-led spending, and ₹5 crore in GST revenue into the government’s coffers. Despite acute airline operational disruptions during the period, the event drew approximately 20,000 attendees, with nearly 53% travelling from outside Guwahati and arriving from more than 200 cities and towns across India.

Beyond the headline figures, the multiplier effect was remarkably far-reaching. For every ₹100 spent on a concert ticket, attendees spent approximately ₹899 on accommodation, travel, dining, shopping and other local services. Hotels in the city reported a nearly 30% increase in occupancy during the concert weekend, local transport operators experienced more than 50% growth in ride demand, restaurants and cafés recorded over 33% growth in walk-ins, while retail businesses witnessed more than 30% higher footfalls during the event.

The concert also acted as a catalyst for regional tourism, encouraging visitors to explore destinations beyond Guwahati, including Kaziranga National Park, Majuli Island, Kamakhya Temple and Sivasagar. In doing so, it also reinforced the city's role as the principal gateway to the vibrant North-East and its diverse tourism circuits.

The North-East: India's Next Live Entertainment Frontier

The BookMyShow and EY-Parthenon report highlights the emergence of the North-East as one of India’s fastest-growing live entertainment markets. Long celebrated for its rich musical heritage, thriving independent music culture and highly engaged fan communities, the region is increasingly becoming a key stop on national and international touring circuits. This momentum is well-reflected in audience behaviour. Assam hosted 55 ticketed events and Guwahati recorded a 188% surge in live-event attendance in 2025, underscoring the rapid evolution of a market once considered beyond India's mainstream concert circuit.

Guwahati is emerging as an important hub for India’s experience economy, establishing how strong audience demand, improving connectivity and long-term investments in infrastructure and positive policy changes can transform a region into a touring destination of choice for global artists and fans alike. This shift mirrors a broader trend unfolding across India, where large-format live entertainment is increasingly shaping new economic and cultural destinations beyond traditional metros. From Coldplay’s record-breaking concerts in Ahmedabad to Post Malone’s historic performance in Guwahati, Indian cities are emerging as hubs for world-class live experiences that generate measurable value across tourism, hospitality, mobility and local enterprise.

The ground-level impact extends beyond audiences and artists. The Post Malone concert mobilised approximately 2,500 personnel across security, hospitality, production, logistics and venue management while creating meaningful short-term employment opportunities and enabling participation from local vendors across staging, branding, infrastructure, food and beverage, connectivity, payments and sustainability operations.

Shri Kumar Padmapani Bora, IRS, Managing Director, Assam Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. (ATDC), said, “For Assam, the concert economy is not just about entertainment; it is about tourism, culture, youth engagement and economic growth working together. Our objective is to build a facilitative ecosystem where large events become repeatable opportunities that bring visitors into the state, create local employment, and showcase Assam to national and global audiences.”

Naman Pugalia, Chief Business Officer - Live Events, BookMyShow, said, "The next phase of India's live entertainment growth will be defined by building entirely new cultural and entertainment hubs. The North-East represents one of the most compelling opportunities in that journey, combining a rich musical heritage with a highly engaged audience and a rapidly evolving ecosystem. The Post Malone concert demonstrated how globally benchmarked live experiences can generate value far beyond the venue, creating impact across tourism, hospitality, local enterprise and employment. More importantly, it showed what becomes possible when government, industry and local stakeholders align behind a shared vision. Assam's journey offers a powerful example of how live entertainment can contribute to economic growth, destination-building and cultural relevance, while creating a blueprint for the future of India's concert economy."

Raghav Anand, Partner and Leader - Media and Entertainment, EY-Parthenon India, said, "Live events have demonstrated a powerful economic multiplier effect, generating meaningful spending across hospitality, transport, retail and local services. What makes Assam particularly exemplifying is not just the headline economic impact, but the ecosystem behind it: clear policy direction, institutional coordination, infrastructure investment and a commitment to measuring outcomes. When live entertainment is treated as economic infrastructure rather than a one-off spectacle, it becomes a repeatable engine for tourism, employment and regional growth."

One of the BookMyShow and EY-Parthenon report’s key findings is that successful concert economies are built not through isolated events, but through sustained investment in ecosystem readiness. Assam’s emergence as a live entertainment destination, driving hordes of outstation crowds, has been influenced by progressive policy measures, infrastructure development, hospitality expansion, single-window facilitation through ATDC and continued investment in local talent and vendor ecosystems. These efforts are helping transform the state into a rapidly growing entertainment corridor within India’s live experience economy.

The momentum is already evident. Following Post Malone’s landmark performance in Guwahati, Assam is now set to welcome legendary rock band Guns N’ Roses on November 17th, 2026, further reinforcing the state’s growing stature on the global touring map. As India’s experience economy expands beyond traditional metros, Assam’s journey demonstrates how live entertainment can drive tourism, employment and economic growth, while offering a blueprint for emerging destinations across the country.

When we signed the MOU with Assam Tourism, we were not just planning events; we were designing an ecosystem. Live entertainment, done at scale, is one of the most powerful economic multipliers a state can invest in. It fills hotel rooms, activates local businesses and creates skilled employment overnight. Our five-year roadmap with Assam is built on that premise - to transform the state into a recurring destination for world-class live experiences, anchoring the North-East as India's next great entertainment corridor.

Ashish Hemrajani

Founder & CEO, BookMyShow

Download the full pdf

PDF (5 MB)

About EY-Parthenon

EY-Parthenon teams work with clients to navigate complexity by helping them to reimagine their eco-systems, reshape their portfolios and reinvent themselves for a better future. With global connectivity and scale, EY-Parthenon teams focus on Strategy Realized — helping CEOs design and deliver strategies to better manage challenges while maximizing opportunities as they look to transform their businesses.

From idea to implementation, EY-Parthenon teams help organizations to build a better working world by fostering long-term value. EY-Parthenon is a brand under which a number of EY member firms across the globe provide strategy consulting services.

For more information, please visit: https://www.ey.com/en_in/strategy/about-ey-parthenon

About BookMyShow

Launched in 2007, BookMyShow, owned and operated by Big Tree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (founded in 1999), is India's leading entertainment destination with global operations and the one-stop shop for every entertainment need. The firm is present in over 700 towns and cities in India and works with partners across the industry to provide unmatched entertainment experiences to millions of customers. Over the years, the company has evolved from a purely online ticketing platform for movies across 7,000 plus screens, to end-to-end management of live entertainment events including music concerts, live performances, theatricals, sports and more, all accomplished at par with global standards. Some of the key properties that BookMyShow Live, the live entertainment experiential division of BookMyShow, has brought to its markets over the past few years include Lollapalooza India, Bandland, Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour, Ed Sheeran: +–=÷x Tour, Maroon 5, Backstreet Boys’ DNA World Tour, Post Malone’s debut India show at the Feeding India concert, U2’s The Joshua Tree Tour, NBA’s debut games in India, Disney’s Aladdin, Cirque du Soleil BAZZAR as also international artists such as Justin Bieber to name a few. 

BookMyShow is invested in providing the best user experience, whether on-ground or online and to that effect, launched BookMyShow Stream, India’s largest home-grown transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) platform hosting award-winning and critically acclaimed content from around the world, complementing its cinemas business. BookMyShow also houses India’s most extensive organic reviews and ratings engine for movies and has driven technology innovations, such as the m-ticket and Movie Mode, impacting tens of millions of users and the industry at large. With continued support from marquee investors like TPG Growth, Stripes Group, Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners), Accel and Network18, BookMyShow has constantly demonstrated category leadership, growing beyond India with operations in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE and Sri Lanka. BookMyShow is also committed to society at large, by way of BookAChange, by BookMyShow Foundation, dedicated to enriching lives through the transformative power of music and the performing arts.

Media Contacts:

BookMyShow: media@bookmyshow.com