How Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Could Generate $5 Billion for the U.S. Economy
The Taylor Swift Era’s Tour. You’ve either been to the best concert of all time, or you’re envious of those who have (I am definitely jealous).
If you don’t understand the hype… you’re just in denial, I promise you.
TS The Era’s Tour has broken long-held records in many aspects. This tour has broken the record for the most tickets sold in ONE day; over 2 million tickets on TicketMaster. TS The Era’s Tour continues to break the record for the most attended female concert in US history almost EVERY NIGHT! (which was previously held by Madonna with 63,000 people attending her concert in LA Anaheim Stadium in 1987). The Era’s Tour also broke records with the run time of each individual show. Taylor performs for over 3 hours, and the complete show is over 5 hours when including headliners.
This got me thinking… Is the Taylor Swift Era’s tour so popular that it could single-handedly significantly boost consumption in the U.S.?
So I did some digging, and here is what I found:
According to a study by QuestionPro, those attending the Taylor Swift Era’ tour spend an average of $1327.74 on tickets, outfits/costumes, merch, food & drinks, and travel. If this pace keeps up, TS The Era’s Tour could have an economic impact of $5 billion on the U.S. Economy (GlobeNewswire, 2023).
And here is how that works:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be expressed as:
Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Net Exports (total spent on exports — total spent on imports)
Taylor Swift’s economic impact in the U.S. is mainly concentrated in “Consumption”. Every dollar spent by a concertgoer on food before the concert, or costumes like heart-shaped sunglasses, bedazzled knee-high boots, or even beads to make friendship bracelets (IYKYK), would count toward “Consumption” in GPD.
This is all boosting the economy by increasing Americans’ spending.
Furthermore, many people are traveling to see the TS The Era’s tour, so they would be spending money on the metro (which directly supports the city municipality), spending money on gas while driving from different cities or states, or even spending money on flights.
Approximately 212,000 people attended the Era’s tour in Nashville over the 3 nights. The Nashville Airport reported that approximately 180,000 people came to town for the weekend of shows.
This also leaves a large impact on the economy.
People who travel to another location to attend an event are usually never there only for the event. It is likely that concertgoers traveled to the chosen city and spent the weekend there. This means that during the 3 days, they bought food and drinks, went on tours of the city, went shopping, used the metro, etc. All of this is boosting economic activity by boosting consumption.
All this and we haven’t even discussed those who traveled with the concertgoers but didn’t attend the concert. We have all seen the videos of all the fathers waiting outside stadiums for their daughters who are watching the show. Those fathers were also likely to spend money on something while waiting: food or drinks or anything else.
The economic impact of the TS Era’s tour is so big, that Dan Fleetwood, President of QuestionPro Research and Insights said:
If Taylor Swift were an economy, she’d be bigger than 50 countries; if she was a corporation, her Net Promoter Score would make her the fourth most admired brand, and her loyalty numbers mimic those of subjects to a royal crown.
We also cannot forget how the tour is boosting the economy by paying all the dancers, the security/ushers, all types of designers, light and sound producers, and the whole team that put this show together. They all have income that they are spending in every city they are visiting!
This is without considering all the people employed and paid to make the physical CDs and Vinyls that were made and sold, and all the merch that was made and given to concertgoers as giveaways.
(also as a side note, I stay awake at night wondering how many people ran to Target to get Midights (Target Exclusive) and wandered through Target after picking up the CD and ended up going on a shopping spree. How many people spent more money than they needed to at Target because they wanted to get a Taylor Swift CD and got distracted? I would give the spending credit here to Taylor Swift as well. Just food for thought)
The Taylor Swift Era’s tour is boosting the U.S. economy the same way a sports final would; like the Super Bowl. The last Super Bowl was in Glendale, Arizona. On that weekend, out of the 300,000 people who attended the Super Bowl, 200,000 people flew in from different cities, as reported by Phoenix Sky Harbor. All those people spent money during the weekend and boosted the local economy. They even massively supported the city municipality since 250,000 people used the metro over the weekend (Morrissette, 2023).
Unfortunately, while the impact of these events on income and consumption is somewhat clear, the impact on employment and production is not because these events cause short-lived demand shocks that are not likely to boost job creation.
The World Cup, on the other hand, has most certainly created jobs in the preparation for the games, but those jobs will not be long-lived, and the true impact of international sports events on the host countries is always debated.
The World Cup’s impact on the GDP is not only about boosting consumption. It will also impact Investment as well as Net Exports. When tourists fly to the U.S. for the World Cup, their spending is generally considered Exports for the U.S., not Consumption.
This is the additional impact that The Era’s Tour is likely to have on the international cities that will host the tour. In addition to the spending of locals, many are likely to travel to the closest city to watch TS The Era’s Tour, and that spending is likely to be considered Exports.
I am definitely considering flying to Madrid next year to watch the show!
The Rolling Stones said, “There’s nothing in history to compare [to TS The Era’s Tour]”. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest tours ever and the fact that this tour is single-handedly impacting the economy this greatly is also a massive flex.
Casey Flanigan/imageSPACE/MediaPunch/AP
Works Cited
GlobeNewswire. (2023, June 08). Generating $5 billion, the Taylor Swift The Eras Tour has an Economic Impact Greater than 50 Countries. Retrieved from Investors Observer: https://www.investorsobserver.com/news/qm-pr/8330806798748964
Morrissette, M. (2023, February 23). How many people went to Super Bowl events in the Valley? The numbers are in. Retrieved from 12News: https://www.12news.com/article/sports/nfl/superbowl/super-bowl-lvii-committee-reports-a-record-number-of-visitors-super-bowl-fans/75-1ddc5de3-12da-4419-94a1-ce99d09b584e
