tkts, the West End’s only official theatre ticket booth, has announced an impressive rise in ticket sales during May to August 2009 up 21% on the same period last year, underlining the healthy state and popularity of London’s Theatreland.
This major rise in ticket sales comes after the recent shake-up of the way tkts operates, with discounted tickets now available to buy up to seven days in advance as well as on the day of the performance. In addition to over 30 shows to choose from each day – including musicals, drama, opera, comedies and dance – customers can now also purchase advance tickets for concerts and sporting events.
tkts has also attributed the rise in sales to the increase in international customers visiting the capital this summer, as well as a boom in local customers as 2009 became the year of the ‘staycation’ for the UK.
The announcement comes as the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) revealed total audience numbers for the year up to the week ending 15 August were up 4% on the same period last year, with 8,786,394 attendances in total.
tkts is run by SOLT and has booths at the heart of Theatreland in Leicester Square and at Brent Cross shopping centre, as well as its multi-lingual website www.tkts.co.uk where tickets will be available to buy online from next year.
All profits from tkts are directly used to fund SOLT’s work helping young people enter the industry and introducing a new audience to the world of theatre, with initiatives including the Laurence Olivier Bursaries for promising new actors and producers, and Kids Week, the annual fortnightly event for which parents receive a children’s ticket free with each adult’s ticket purchased, which this year sold over 51,000 tickets.
CM