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Broadway Sold Fewer Tickets Overall for the 2009-2010 Season

Culture Chronicle

Fewer Foreign Tourists on Broadway
Crain's New York Business - December 8, 2010
By Miriam Kreinin Souccar

A report released Wednesday by the Broadway League also showed that 69% of purchasing was done by women, but fewer tickets were sold overall for the 2009-2010 season.

With the global recession taking its toll, fewer foreign languages were heard on the Great White Way last season and fewer tickets were purchased overall.

International tourists accounted for 17% of all admissions to Broadway shows in New York for the 2009-2010 season, according to a report released Wednesday by the Broadway League about audience demographics. With 8.6 million visits by foreign tourists, around one in four of them took in a Broadway show. In the 2008-2009 season, international visitors accounted for 21% of the Broadway tickets sold, a record number.

The drop in international tourists was "most logically due to the changing economic conditions," said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League. Still, she added, "New York City continues to show strong tourism numbers as such a significant number of our visitors do come from outside the NYC metro area."

Indeed, tourists accounted for 63% of the 11.89 million Broadway tickets sold last season, the same percentage as the prior year. But overall ticket sales were lower. For the 2008-2009 season, 12.15 million tickets were sold.

Females were the largest group of theatergoers last season, making up 66.3% of the audience, the highest ever. Nearly 70% of the people making the purchasing decisions were female.

"It's always been this way, but it's increasing a little bit and producers need to think about that," said Producer Ken Davenport. "Although it's very difficult to go to a playwright or composer and say '70% of our buyers are women so think about that when you create your next piece.' "

Even with a growing number of theater blogs and social networking sites, critics' reviews were still the most influential factors for playgoers, according to the report. However, 48% of theatergoers at musicals said that personal recommendation was the single strongest factor in deciding which show to see, up slightly from 47% the prior season. For the full article, click here

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