Photo: CFP

A number of Taiwan and Hong Kong singers including Jay Chou, May Day, Wakin Chau, Richie Jen and Rene Liu have plans to hold concerts this year, according to a post on the WeChat account of China Association of Performing Arts (CAPA), after local culture and tourism departments in the Chinese mainland resumed acceptance and approval of commercial performances involving people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan on Thursday.   

CAPA said that the resumption means more large-scale commercial performances such as concerts will be heldthis year, serving as an important indicator for domestic performance market in terms of both market influence and ticket revenue. 

CAPA also expected that a series of concerts and music festivals will be held "intensively" starting in the second quarter, as the booking of stadiums already shows different level of tightness to date. It also cited industry insider as saying that the competition of the concert market will be very fierce in 2023 and 2024.   

According to an announcement by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism in January, new commercial performance applications involving people from overseas were still suspended, except for those who are already in the Chinese mainland.

China's tourism has been embarking on a rapid recovery, after Chinese authorities downgraded COVID response in December. 

According to an analysis by CAPA,9,400 commercial performances were held during the seven-day Spring Festival holidays which started on January 21, up 40.92 percent year-on-year. Revenues from ticket sales also expanded 3.85 percent to 378 million yuan ($54.99 million), rebounding to about 80 percent of the pre-epidemic level in 2019. 

During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which lasted from January 7 to Wednesday, 4.73 billion passenger trips were made, a significant rebound compared with last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Transport on Thursday.

Global Times