The international touring grid through Asia-Pacific has been rebuilding for several years. Australia’s position in that grid in 2026 is different from where it was in 2019, and the implications matter for promoters, venues, and audiences.

I’ve been on enough tours through this region to see how routing decisions get made. The maths has changed.

How acts route now

A major international tour through Asia-Pacific in 2026 typically looks like:

• Japan (multiple cities, often a Tokyo residency)
• Korea (Seoul, sometimes Busan)
• Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei
• Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta increasingly competitive
• Australia and New Zealand

The relative weighting between markets has shifted. Korea and Japan have grown significantly in promoter spend. Southeast Asian markets are now competitive for spend that used to go automatically to Australia. The Australian leg is still strong but the budget allocation isn’t what it was.

This matters because routing decisions are made on cumulative tour economics. If a Korean promoter offers significantly better terms, the Australian promoter has to compete on either money or scheduling flexibility — and increasingly both.

What’s driving the shift

Korea and Japan growth. K-pop and J-pop infrastructure has become world-class. The venues, production capabilities, audience spending power, and corporate sponsorship support make these markets attractive to acts of all genres, not just home-region acts. Western artists routinely structure tours around Asian dates that previously would have been routed via Australia.

Southeast Asian disposable income growth. Per-capita music spending in Southeast Asia has grown faster than Australia’s in the past five years. Promoters there can pay competitive guarantees for the right acts. Five years ago Australia got dates that other regional markets didn’t pursue. Now there’s competition.

Australian dollar weakness. When the AUD is weaker, Australian guarantees in USD terms shrink relative to other markets. This isn’t permanent but it’s the situation acts have been routing through for several years now.

Higher Australian production costs. Same dynamics that affect festivals affect tour production. Australia is now a relatively expensive market to tour in production terms, and the spend has to be justified by audience scale.

What promoters are doing

Successful Australian promoters in 2026 are doing a few things differently:

Building stronger artist development relationships. Rather than competing for top-tier acts on price alone, finding emerging acts and building Australian audience for them. This pays off when those acts grow into bigger draws.

Emphasising venue advantages. The acoustics at the Forum, the unique character of the Hordern Pavilion, the production capacity of major arenas — these are real advantages that experienced acts value. Promoters who can articulate these well have an edge.

Leveraging tour routing. Australia and New Zealand together still make sense as a routing block. Promoters who coordinate effectively between AU and NZ deliver value that single-country routing doesn’t.

Multi-act packaging. Taking a known act and adding strong support that has Australian-specific draw. This makes the show economics work better for everyone — the headliner gets a guaranteed full house, the support gets exposure, and the local market gets a stronger night out.

What audiences are seeing

The visible result for audiences:

• Fewer mid-tier international acts touring Australia (the ones that used to come through opportunistically aren’t routing here as much)
• More premium-priced shows from top-tier acts (the ones who do come are charging more because they can)
• More activity in markets we used to see as secondary (Brisbane and Perth getting acts that previously skipped them in favor of Sydney/Melbourne only)
• More festival-style packaging because individual headline tours are harder to make work

What’s unstable

A few things could change the picture:

• AUD strength returning would shift some routing back
• Asian visa and entry complications occasionally make Australia a routing alternative
• A major political shift in any of the dominant Asian markets could reroute touring patterns
• Australian sponsorship deepening (less likely in current advertising market) could improve guarantee competitiveness

What promoters need to think about

For Australian promoters, the question isn’t whether the touring grid has shifted — it has. The question is how to position the Australian market for the routing it can plausibly capture.

Trying to compete on price with markets that have stronger fundamentals isn’t going to work. Building distinctive value (production quality, audience engagement, venue character, artist development support) is the path that actually pays off.

This is harder work than just outbidding. It requires sustained relationships with international management, real investment in artist development locally, and patience for results that play out over multiple tour cycles.

The promoters doing this work in 2026 are positioning themselves well. The promoters still trying to win on guarantee size alone are mostly losing — and that’s not going to change in the next few years.