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Swift Eras Concert Goers in Minneapolis – Photo credit: Meet Minneapolis
Taylor Swift has had a monumental impact on the travel industry this past year, and as she wraps up the end of her popular Eras Tour in the United States, we’re taking a look at how the travel industry has benefited from her concerts.
According to global real estate services firm JLL, her tour has added an estimated $1 billion in hotel revenue. Some consider her tour to be more impactful than events like the Super Bowl or the Olympics on hotel revenue, according to Travel Weekly.
Across the destinations in which Swift visited on her tour, hotels saw a nearly 20 percent increase in RevPAR when compared to 2019’s pre-pandemic level. The average global RevPAR recovery from 2019 is around 12 percent. RevPAR, or revenue per available room, is a key hotel metric.
Eras Tour Sign at Union Station in Kansas City – Photo credit: Courtesy Visit KC
Last year, her U.S. leg of the Eras Tour brought in an estimated $5 billion in direct spending for the twenty cities the tour visited, bringing in much-needed economic boosts to the travel industries in cities from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas.
Governmental leaders around the world went to social media encouraging Swift to add tour stops in their countries after recognizing the economic impact her tour produced. The tour’s initial economic impact was estimated to be higher than the gross domestic product of over 50 countries.
Further abroad, travel companies like young adult tour operator Contiki began offering Taylor Swift tours that combined tours in destinations like Paris with opportunities to attend Swift’s concerts.
Brightline and iHeartRadio took to the Swiftie trend when the tour returned to North America on October 18, offering sing-a-long rides to her concerts in Florida. Airlines also added more flights and new routes heading to her tour destinations.
For her last leg in North America, cities from Vancouver to New Orleans have seen interest and hotel prices skyrocket during her concert dates, with hotel prices regularly pricing at over $1,000 a night and occupancy reaching over 80 percent as hundreds of thousands of travelers visit for the concert.
Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour draws to a close in Vancouver this December.
This article originally appeared in TravelPulse.