Tours vs Festivals?

Has there been a big decrease in the turnouts for band tours in recent years?

I've noticed that the numbers of people that bother to turn up for gigs outside of the major cities in the UK have been extremely low (just this week Impiety / Setherial had around 8-15 people at a gig in Nottingham. Incantation had a total of 12, Gates of Slumber / Lord Vicar / The Wounded Kings had 21 people, while a Destruction / Onslaught gig a few years ago had no more than 15 people.).

Meanwhile it seems that turnouts for larger festivals are quite good, and this year there are quite a few with excellent line ups (Hells Pleasure, Armageddon fest, Hole in the sky, Live Evil, one in Finland I can't remember, NWN! fest etc...).

Is this a sign that bands are less likely to tour in recent years? How are turnouts in the rest of Europe?

I agree.

Bands of average status stick to playing european festivals because only these can guarantee that the tour won't be a financial fiasco. which in times of falling CD sales only the bigger acts can afford. and I'm not talking about someone like, say, Cathedral.

An interesting looking festival here:

http://www.killtowndeathfest.dk/?lang=eng

It will be interesting to hear how smoothly this runs.