The Oasis reunion and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour are fuelling a huge surge in destination searches as ‘gig-tripping’ fever grips tourists. Olivia Palamountain reports
New data from leading travel platforms has revealed significant spikes in flight searches coinciding with high-profile tour announcements. The upcoming Oasis reunion is already catalysing tourism across the UK and Ireland, according to research from global travel booking platform Omio.
London leads European capital city searches with nearly three million queries for flights in the past month alone, while Dublin attracted 761,000 searches. The surge aligns with the band’s scheduled performances at Wembley Stadium, Croke Park, and Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium this summer.
The trend is even more pronounced with Beyoncé’s recently announced Cowboy Carter tour. Data from online travel agent Opodo shows searches for London flights increasing by 25% during her six-night residency (June 5-16), with peak dates seeing jumps of up to 49%.
Following the tour’s announcement on February 3, 2025, global searches for London travel surged by 30%, escalating to 61% when tickets were released on February 12.
The international draw of these events is significant. For Beyoncé’s London dates, the US leads flight searches at 25%, followed by Germany and Spain at 8% each.
Denmark showed the most dramatic year-on-year increase at 161%, while German searches rose by 135%. The impact extends beyond London, with UK searches to Paris jumping 77% during Beyoncé’s French tour dates (June 18-23). Her hometown shows in Houston prompted an 84% increase in searches for travel to Texas.
The data illustrates how major cultural events are reshaping tourism patterns, with cities hosting significant concerts seeing unprecedented interest from international travellers. Known as “Gig-Tripping“, the trend is indicative of music tourism becoming an increasingly powerful driver of travel decisions and destination choice.
