One of the biggest developments in the country's entertainment landscape has been the announcement of Guwahati, alongside Bengaluru, as a host city for the upcoming Guns N' Roses concert in India.
Once peripheral to India's live entertainment circuit, Assam is fast emerging as one of the country's most compelling concert destinations.
Backed by progressive policies, strategic infrastructure investments, rising audience demand, and key public-private partnerships, the state is demonstrating how live entertainment can serve as both a cultural asset and a catalyst for economic growth.
In a landmark step towards institutionalising this vision, BookMyShow, India's leading live entertainment and culture platform, in collaboration with the Assam Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. (ATDC) and EY-Parthenon, a strategy and consulting firm, has unveiled The Assam Blueprint: Turning Live Music Economy into a Tourism Multiplier, a comprehensive report capturing the economic, tourism, workforce and cultural impact of live entertainment in Assam following one of Guwahati's largest live entertainment spectacles - Post Malone's first-ever solo headline concert in India, produced and promoted by BookMyShow Live.
Far beyond assessing the economic impact of a single event, the BookMyShow, ATDC, and EY-Parthenon report positions Assam as an early example of how strategic ecosystem-building, destination development, and long-term investment can transform live entertainment from a standalone cultural moment into a recurring economic multiplier. The report estimates that a structured pipeline of marquee events could generate more than ₹700 crore in cumulative economic impact for Assam over the next five years.
Headline Concert To Measurable Economic Engine
The report highlights Post Malone's first-ever solo headline concert in India, held in Guwahati, as a case study demonstrating how live entertainment can generate tangible economic value across tourism, hospitality, mobility, retail and local services.
According to estimates by BookMyShow and EY-Parthenon, the concert generated ₹43 crore in total economic impact across multiple industries, including ₹32 crore injected directly into Assam's economy through attendee spending and ₹5 crore in GST revenue for the government. Despite significant airline operational disruptions during the period, the event attracted approximately 20,000 attendees, with nearly 53 per cent 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 nearly a 30 per cent increase in occupancy during the concert weekend. Local transport operators experienced more than 50 per cent growth in ride demand, restaurants and cafes recorded over 33 per cent growth in footfall, while retail businesses witnessed more than 30 per cent higher footfall 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 reinforced the city's role as the principal gateway to the North-East and its diverse tourism circuits.
The North-East: India's Next Live Entertainment Frontier
The 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 reflected in audience behaviour. Assam hosted 55 ticketed events, while Guwahati recorded a 188 per cent surge in live event attendance in 2025, underscoring the rapid evolution of a market once considered outside India's mainstream concert circuit.
Guwahati is emerging as an important hub for India's experience economy, demonstrating how strong audience demand, improving connectivity, long-term infrastructure investments and supportive policy measures can transform a region into a preferred touring destination for global artists and fans alike.
This shift mirrors a broader trend unfolding across India, where large-scale live entertainment is increasingly shaping new economic and cultural destinations beyond traditional metropolitan centres. 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 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 involved in staging, branding, infrastructure, food and beverage, connectivity, payments and sustainability operations.
Kumar Padmapani Bora, IRS, Managing Director of 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 at 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, said, "Live events have demonstrated a powerful economic multiplier effect, generating meaningful spending across hospitality, transport, retail and local services. What makes Assam particularly noteworthy 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 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 attracting significant numbers of outstation visitors has been driven 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.
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/BsbgVu1
