Megastar concerts in tourism: a study using mobile phone data

Event tourism is a rapidly growing phenomenon. Increasing numbers of events are being attended by international travellers. In this paper, we use mobile positioning data (call detail records (CDR)) to focus on visits made to Estonia over the period 2006-2013. The aim is to compare the characteristics of visits to megastar concerts with visits to other events (entertainment events, festivals, and sporting events) and regular visits. The dataset consists of 853,013 visits by 497,038 visitors. The results show a correlation between the distance travelled by an individual and the likelihood of attending a megastar concert. Visitors to megastar concerts are more likely to come from neighbouring countries and to spend less time in a destination than visitors to other events or regular visitors. The geography of visits to megastar concerts differs from that of other types of visits; on average, visitors to megastar concerts travel less within Estonia than other groups of visitors. These results indicate that the hosting of this type of event helps to diversify the supply of tourism in Estonia. It is also clear that mobile positioning data are a valuable source in studies of event tourism.