March 2019 saw Danish technology firm Queue-it, which supports many ticketing sites, expand its global reach by entering the Asia-Pacific market.
Queue-it, a developer of virtual waiting room services to control website traffic surges by offloading visitors to an online waiting line environment, opened an office in Sydney, Australia back in March.
Its SaaS platform enables online ticket sellers, retailers, educational institutions, and public-sector services to keep their systems online and visitors informed during peak demand times.
As part of the move, Queue-it brought in former chief executive of Asia and managing director of Australia for Tickets.com, Ian English.
Also in March, we saw CTS Eventim move to combine its live entertainment activities into a pan-European promoter network called Eventim Live.
The unit was made up of 26 promoters that organise 27 festivals and more than 5,000 live events each year, with approximately 10 million visitors in 10 countries.
The structure helps to facilitate planning and organisation of international tours and offers artists a ‘one-stop shop’ for comprehensive live entertainment services.
Network members and their partners have gained access to central services, knowledge sharing, and a joint approach to the market.
Later in the month, members of the UK’s House of Lords urged the government to investigate the rising prices of West End theatre tickets.
The debate kicked off after it was revealed that the highest priced seats had increased by almost a fifth between 2017 and 2018, according to The Stage’s ticketing survey.
Liberal Democrat Patrick Boyle brought the issue up, asking the government to look into the increasing prices of London theatre tickets and how this affects theatregoers.
The top priced tickets in the West End had skyrocketed by more than 60 per cent since 2012, with the average top-end seat costing fans £117.52 (€136.95/$153.61).
Elsewhere, Tix Corporation felt the fallout from the Las Vegas shutout in 2018, seeing a revenue decrease of 25 per cent for the year.
Tix Corporation provides discount-ticketing services through several stores in the Nevada entertainment hub under its Tix4Tonight marquee. It offers discounted tickets for same-day shows, concerts, attractions and sporting events, as well as discount reservations for dining. Tix4Tonight also serves as the official Las Vegas guest services partner for Expedia and its other brands.
The firm’s income for the year ending December 2018 fell by around $4.4m (£3.3m/€3.9m) to $13m, which is due to several factors. MGM Resorts, which is a partner of four of the five Cirque du Soleil shows, pulled the show’s tickets from the company’s Tix4Tonight booths to retain them for its own sales in November 2017. Cirque du Soleil made up 15 per cent of Tix’s total ticket sales. MGM also opened five of its own discount ticket booths.
Tix4Tonight’s Las Vegas booths have since resumed selling MGM Resorts resident Cirque du Soleil shows, which for a period had only been offered on the company’s website.
Click here to see the April 2019 review and here to see the February 2019 review.
Image: Pxhere
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