Inside the booming Taylor Swift economy
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Photo Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios. Photo: Octavio Jones, Terence Rushin/Getty Images
Taylor Swift's 52-night, 20-city tour through the U.S. is breaking attendance records — and poised to be one of the highest-grossing tours of all time.
- But the Eras Tour's influence and impact extends beyond just ticket and merch sales.
The big picture: The pop star's concerts are fueling an entire Taylor Swift economy — as fans spend big on travel, lodging, food, fashion and makeup to attend the shows.
What's happening: Many fans are traveling to different states to catch shows because they grabbed whatever tickets they could get. And each stop on the tour is prepping for a mini boom when Swift rolls through.
- Glendale, Arizona, the tour's first stop, temporarily renamed itself "Swift City," and hotel rates skyrocketed as fans poured in from around the country and world, the Arizona Republic reports.
- In Houston, Swift boosted hotel occupancy rates more than the NCAA men's Final Four, Axios Houston's Shafaq Patel writes. Her three-night stint in the city resulted in Houston's highest hotel revenue week of 2023, according to a local tourism agency.
- In Nashville, a slew of bars and restaurants as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame drew in patrons with special Swift-themed events when she was in town, Axios Nashville's Adam Tamburin and Katie Lewis write.
Emily Althoff, a graduate student in Minneapolis, traveled to Nashville with her mom for the concert.
- "I met folks from the Yukon [Canada], Portland, New York City and Miami," she says.
What to watch: Philadelphia, where Swift is playing this weekend, is prepping for its rush.
- Case in point: The Courtyard by Marriott in South Philly, located near the concert venue, is completely booked, which is not typical for when a musical act plays at the more than 65,000-seat stadium.
- "It's off the charts," Ben Fileccia, a Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association spokesperson, tells Axios Philadelphia's Michael D'Onofrio.
Fans are also spending big on bejeweled boots, custom jackets, and hair and makeup looks to show out for the concerts.
- Amazon, Poshmark and other retailers are selling pages and pages of Eras Tour outfits.
- Karishma Hingorani, a Detroit resident, who's attending two Swift shows in the summer, commissioned a local embroidery shop to make her a custom denim jacket depicting all of the pop star's 10 albums. "Cost more than my ticket," she says.
The bottom line: It's "Swiftonomics," writes Bloomberg's Augusta Saraiva.
- "Swifties represent an extreme version of the turbocharged consumers willing to splurge on everything they missed during the pandemic."
Go deeper: Blockbuster summer of concerts
