Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, January – December 2015, sample n = 50,276 Australians 14+
Australians spent $2.5 billion online on tickets to shows, films and events last year, and 40 percent was spent by women aged 35 plus, Roy Morgan Research shows.
Women spent around $300 million more than men, while older punters and families together spent three times more than the under-35s.
14-24 year-olds spent $279 million on tickets online last year — only 11 percent of the overall market.
25-34 year-olds spent a bit more: $354 million, or 14 percent.
What that means is that 14-34 year-olds make up only a quarter of online ticket sales by value, while Australians aged 50 plus bought $810 million worth of tickets online in 2015 – 32 percent of the market.
The largest slice of the pie was spent by 35-49 year-olds, who clicked to buy over a billion dollars’ worth of tickets last year – no accident that most parents with young children fall into this age bracket.
There are also differences in spending between men and women.
Overall, almost 250,000 more women than men buy tickets online during an average month — but when men do buy tickets online, they spend around $20 more.
That said, the higher regularity of purchasing among women of all age groups more than makes up for their lower average expenditure, and last year 56 percent of online ticket sales went to women.
“One in 15 Australians 14 plus buy tickets to shows, movies and events online in an average four weeks—women aged 35-49 are the most common online ticket-buyers (around one in eight), while men aged 14-24 are the least (fewer than one in 25)", CEO of Roy Morgan Research Michele Levine said.
“While incidence and population size each play a big part in how much each group contributes to the annual $2.5 billion market, another important factor is which tickets and events these groups prefer—and how much they cost: 14-24 year-olds are the most likely to go to the cinema; more 25-34 year-olds go to rock or pop concerts, the zoo, or exhibitions like home and boat shows; more 35-49 year-olds go to theme parks and sporting events; and more people aged 50-plus go to live theatre and classical concerts, galleries and museums. And perhaps men really need to get out more, being outnumbered by women at nearly all events, including the movies, theatre, concerts, galleries, museums and zoos."