The economic benefits are easy to see. Swift’s Eras tour last year sold 4.35 million tickets over 60 dates and was the first musical tour to generate $1 billion in revenue. The tour continues this year and is expected to earn another billion. The film from that show, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” earned more than $260 million worldwide and has become the top-grossing concert film of all time.
Swift herself is thought to have made more than $2 billion last year, according to Billboard. The Washington Post reckons those earnings exceeded the annual economic output of 42 nations in 2022.
She’s not the only one to benefit. Legions of loyal fans travel to the concerts and spend lots of money in the process. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia credits Swift for lifting hotel occupation rates in the city to pre-pandemic levels. Two concerts in Denver are estimated to have contributed $140 million to Colorado’s gross domestic product. Six shows in Los Angeles generated $320 million, creating 3,300 jobs, $20 million in sales and local sales tax and another $9 million in hotel room taxes. The U.S. Travel Association estimates that the 2023 tour had an economic impact of at least $10 billion.
No wonder, then, that foreign governments were eager to get her to schedule shows in their countries when Swift announced last year that she was extending the tour. She received an invitation from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — after members of Parliament complained that the initial schedule, which included no dates in the country, was a “snub”; Swift subsequently added nine shows in Toronto and Vancouver — as well as the president of Chile, the mayor of Budapest and the leader of a Thai opposition party.
Writing in Semafor last year, J.D. Capelouto argued that “the tour has become such a cultural juggernaut that simply hosting a show gives a city bragging rights and its own news cycle.” He concluded that “Right now, it feels like the No. 1 sign of global clout is whether Taylor Swift is coming to town.”
