The American pop icon fills a void the world doesn’t know she has with her soulful music. As powerful as her songs are, Swift is also an economic masterpiece.
Her Eras tour, which kicked off last year in the wake of the global pandemic, broke the record for the highest-grossing tour in history. Business has grown in every city she’s performed in, whether it’s retail, catering or hotel room sales.
Nomura estimates that Swift’s influence is so profound that the Eras Tour generated $5 billion in consumer spending in the United States in just six months.
The singer is now using her financial clout in Europe to weather a brutal summer, and experts think the benefits could outweigh the U.S. leg of her tour.
How is Europe different for Swift?
Swift is playing more than 50 shows, including in the UK, Switzerland and Poland.
While timing and macroeconomic circumstances vary across countries compared to the United States, Europe as a whole has some general advantages.
“[Europe has] The public transportation network is more robust than in the United States, so it is easier to reach the venue from a wider area.So we think the impact could be wider than just within a two-and-a-half-mile radius,” Natalia Lechmanova, chief European economist at Mastercard Economics, told wealth.
This means that people don’t necessarily have to be close to a concert venue before attending a concert, as they can bet on an efficient transportation system to get them where they need to go. It also helps that Swift’s tour dates are focused during the summer, when people are already looking for opportunities to travel.
If that’s not enough, Swift will also perform new tracks from her double album, which was released last month, at the upcoming show. That bodes well for the pop star’s American fans, many of whom flocked to Paris to see Swift perform in greater numbers than at the Olympics. Others traveled to different parts of Europe to catch a glimpse of their idols.
Caroline Babinski, 26, who lives in New York, will fly to Zurich in July for one of Swift’s shows. She attended two Eras Tour shows in the US, but that didn’t stop her from going to another one – but this time, in Europe.
“It’s much easier to book in Zurich. When I tried to go to the U.S. to play shows, I never actually got pre-sales,” Babinski told wealthadding that tickets were also much cheaper than the shows she went to in Philadelphia.
Babinski said she spent about $1,500 on the trip to Zurich, where she would stay with her sister and attend Swift’s concert.
“I think it’s worth it,” she said. “The production of the show she’s doing now is unparalleled.”
Kevin Mazur — TAS24/Getty Images/TAS Rights Management
“So will it last forever, or will it be reduced to ashes in flames?”
Lechmanova cites a stronger U.S. dollar and a growing trend of people spending on experiences rather than material goods as other factors driving American Swifties to Europe.
Economies around the world have had a tough few years dealing with interest rates. It’s taken a lot of work, but inflation is finally starting to cool in most major economies, although not as low as central banks would like.
However, sudden demand for hotel rooms and catering ahead of major concerts could briefly increase inflation. That’s what happened in Sweden last July, when core inflation slowed less than expected during the singer’s Renaissance Tour in Stockholm in the midst of the “Beyoncé crisis.”
Could this be a reason for concern in Europe about Swift’s era tour? Not likely, Lechmanova said.
“This can cause a brief blip that day, but then it goes down. So when it comes to [the] The impact on inflationary trends in Europe is nothing to praise,” she said.
Nomura analysts wrote in a March note that while Swift’s concerts will soon disappear, their impact will be greater in smaller cities than in larger cities. The reason is that behemoths like London and Paris can attract huge amounts of extra tourists that cities like Liverpool cannot.
Barclays estimates that in the UK alone, concert ticket holders spend 12 times more on a night out than the average Briton, adding £1 billion ($1.27 billion) to the economy. Swifts fueled the craze by spending money on concert-themed films and dressing up different “eras” of artists.
George Moran, European economist at Nomura Securities, said a more local impact could also be seen in Ireland, where Swift has three shows scheduled in June. wealth.
However, he warned that there was still a risk of overestimating the economic impact.
“The layout of U.S. cities and their large stadiums may be very different from the international cities Taylor Swift visits in 2024,” Moran said, adding that the Beyoncé incident in Sweden could be seen. However, any impact would be more industry-based (e.g. hospitality) rather than having a significant impact at the macroeconomic level.
“If the effect is not evident in a small economy like Sweden, then it is unlikely to have a sizeable impact on the larger economy,” he said.
Regardless, Europe has rolled out the red carpet for Swift and her string of performances through August.
With fans flocking to various venues and waiting with bated breath to watch her live stream, it looks like Swift is already having the summer.
