Well Over Half of Broadway's Tickets Are Sold to Tourists; 14% Go to Under-25s
(© Matt Hoyle)
Each year, the Broadway League releases a report entitled The Demographics of the Broadway Audience, revealing current theatergoing habits and comparing them to those of previous seasons. The newly released 2012-2013 report discloses many interesting (and several encouraging) statistics about Broadway's ticket-purchasing base in the past year.
According to the analysis, which is based on data gleaned from audience questionnaires, 66 percent of all Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists visiting New York City (up from 63 percent the previous season), with 23 percent going to international visitors. As the international audience has grown, so has audience diversity. Though Caucasians continue to make up the lion's share of Broadway ticket-buyers (78 percent), in the past year, Hispanic audiences made up 8 percent of Broadway-goers. That number is the second-highest in the 16-year history of this analysis.
Some of the year's most exciting demographic news involves a rise in theatergoing among young adults. Not only was the average age of the Broadway attendee down slightly from previous years to 42.5 years, but the 2012-2013 season attracted the highest percentage of theatergoers age 18-24 (14 percent, or 1.6 million admissions) that the analysis has ever recorded. In addition, the season saw just over 1 million admissions by kids and teenagers.
Perhaps in accordance with the rise of the young-adult theatergoer, the use of the Internet to purchase Broadway tickets has continued with the trajectory it has been following for the past decade. As Web sales increase, telephone sales have seen a corresponding decline. The percentage of visits to the box office has remained close to consistent.
For more information about the demographics of Broadway theatergoers during the 2012-2013 season or to see more of The Broadway League's reports, click here. To keep online ticket-buying on its upward trajectory (and to save some money), visit TheaterMania's Broadway Discounts page.
