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A world record for the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.
First concert tour to gross $1 billion.
The record for the highest number of tickets sold in one day.
Became a billionaire – the first person to do so with music being the main source of income.
All at the age of 33
To say it’s been a great year for Taylor Swift would be a massive understatement. The same can be said for Taylor Swift’s fans. With the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert movie, and three albums released in the past year, there is no shortage of content for swifties to consume.
The only thing that might upset a “swiftie” this year is finding out that they have been dethroned as the pop icon’s biggest fans. That title may be claimed by the destination marketing organizations (DMOs) of cities hosting Swift concerts.
Image Source: Carson Schlather
Nobody wants Taylor Swift to perform in their area more than the organizations in charge of promoting their communities to music-loving travelers. And the economic impact data related to the Eras Tour backs that up. Now, every host city is saying “see you again,” even if it is just in their wildest dreams.
Typically, when calculating the economic impact of an event, every $100 spent on a live performance will result in around $300 of ancillary spending on hotel rooms, food, and travel. But, according to the U.S. Travel Association, “swifties” spent an average of $1,300 on travel, hotels, food, and merchandise on top of what they spent on the ticket.
This level of spending is on par with what Super Bowl attendees typically spend. Only instead of happening once a year in a single city, the Eras Tour had this impact on 20 cities across the country spread across 53 shows in just five months.
It was estimated by the market research firm, QuestionPro, that by the end of the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift will have contributed to a $5 billion boost to the nation’s economy. And while she certainly boosted hotel, dining, and retail revenue in the cities that the tour stopped in, her impact didn’t stop there.
After starting a friendship-bracelet craze with lyrics from her song, “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” the Chief Merchandising Officer of Michael’s Stores, John Gehre, reported that sales in the jewelry category had gone up 40 percent chainwide with increases of 300 percent in tour cities.
The highest-grossing concert tour in modern history may be coming to a close, but if you aspire to host a game-changing concert in the future, you need to be prepared. While the cities that Swift visited on her tour are all big cities that you have likely heard of before, what’s more important than their reputation and population is their infrastructure.
Several U.S. cities announced that the Eras Tour had helped to boost travel and tourism in the area. Chicago broke their all-time record for hotel room occupancy, Seattle hotels made $2 million more in revenue than they did during the MLB All-Star Game, and many cities even drew in tens of thousands of “Taylor-gaters” or fans who gather outside of stadiums to hear the concert from the parking lot or nearby parks. Tour cities compared each concert’s economic impact with the Super Bowl.
To host such an act, your city needs to be prepared to accommodate those big numbers. The average number of attendees for the Eras Tour was 70,000 people. So, if your goal is to have Taylor perform, then you are looking at a stadium and downtown that can entertain 70,000 people on top of the usual crowds.
A large venue is necessary for hosting large concerts, but having a downtown with the capacity and personality to host the pre-game and after-party for that many people is much more important when creating the full experience. According to information from the Mastercard Economic Institute, restaurants within a 2.5-mile radius of the concert venues saw average spending growth increases of 68 percent during the days of the concerts. Cities like Glendale, AZ, Kansas City, MO, and Santa Clara, CA experienced the highest increases of 168-172 percent! This “swift lift” also affected hotels in a 10-mile radius of the concert venue, with an average sales boost of 32.1 percent. Foxborough, MA, saw the greatest boost with an increase of 100.5 percent.
While this tour has been great for all the cities it traveled through, it was a bit of a cruel summer for the small and mid-sized cities that don’t have the draw to host such a concert.
For all the cities that feel like The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, hosting 70,000+ people might feel impossible. That’s because it is impossible. Thankfully, most music tours need routing gigs (or smaller shows in between anchor dates of a tour) in smaller cities with smaller venues to fill the gap between anchor dates in big cities.
While her Eras Tour didn’t have any routing gigs, Taylor Swift’s first tour, the Fearless Tour, went through several small venues with capacities of 10,000 people. While still selling out Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA, during that same tour.
The economic benefits of attracting artists and music lovers to your area can be great no matter the size of your stadium. There won’t be hundreds of articles written about the impacts of the concerts you host, but their impact on both the economy and the community will be noticeable.
The Eras Tour was more than just a concert tour; it was an economic catalyst, a community builder, and a benchmark for future events to be compared. As the final notes fade and alphabet beads start to come back in stock, the legacy of Taylor Swift’s Era Tour will continue to resonate, inspiring cities to embrace the economic potential of the arts and entertainment industry.
As Taylor herself said, “Just go for it, or don’t. But don’t wait.” Great advice for communities thinking about branding themselves as a music destination. Despite the original quote being in response to a question about the “five-second rule” and starting with, “If what you have dropped is sticky, do not eat it off the ground. Otherwise, you make the call.”
Still true.
