Whether you love or hate her, you have to thank her. Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon. The tour has become a major factor in helping not only the U.S. economy but the entire world. At every stop along Swift’s tour, she sprinkles her touch of warmth and sincere kindness that assists businesses and the immediate community in picking up the pieces after the pandemic. Swift’s hard work, dedication, and loyal fanbase have affected more than just the Billboard music charts. Throughout The Eras Tour, this magnetic performer is redefining the traditional concert and generating unprecedented revenue and goodwill across multiple industries with every tour stop.
Throughout Swift’s tour, she’s been keeping up with her genuine generosity. Swift gifted her truck drivers alone a life-changing $100,000 each as a bonus, the eventual total of giving to her entire crew totaled $55 million. Her donations to dozens of food banks have been providing consolation after the fallout of the pandemic. For reference, during her shows in Seattle, she gave enough money to fund several thousand pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables for more than 400 food banks across Western Washington. The donations provide more than just food for families, they also give much-needed publicity that helps to spread awareness for food banks. The Three Square Food Bank in southern Nevada saw an uptrend in donations and interest in its mission after Swift’s Eras Tour stop.
Swift’s impact is being felt by local businesses as well. After Philadelphia night one at The Eras Tour, Swift ordered 50 pizzas that were planned to be delivered the next day after Philly night two. The owner of this pizza place, Christian Palamone, had to call back to confirm the authenticity, “I’m like, ‘Can you just call back to make sure?’ I don’t want to get pranked or anything, because it was a lot of pizza,” Palamone had said. Then, on that Sunday, 25 more pizzas were ordered by the Berks County native’s team along with cheesesteaks and fries for the crew. In total, 75 pizzas were made within two hours. The pizza shop named Avenue Steaks and Pizza had to be temporarily closed down to accommodate the large order.
The Eras Tour has been breaking numerous attendance records stadium after stadium. The high attendance even caused a “Swift-quake” during one of the Seattle concerts with a measured 2.3-magnitude. On opening night in Glendale, Arizona, it became the most-attended concert by a female artist in the U.S. as 69,000 fans joined Swift to travel through her eras. The Eras Tour has brought tourism to an all-time high, bringing it back stronger than ever after the pandemic. Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke stated, “This has been a notable boost to the hotel industry.” In the July beige book, which contains information on current economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts, fed officials wrote that “despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May 2023 was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.” The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia announced in July that Swift’s tour helped boost travel and tourism in the region, a claim similarly made by numerous other U.S. cities.
Swift’s latest announcement, the debut of her Eras Tour movie as a partnership with AMC Theaters, provided records outside of the music industry for her to break. The presale for her movie tickets outsold some of the most prominent Marvel movies for the AMC Theaters, such as “Avengers: Endgame” and the former placeholder “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Movies like “What Happens Later” and “The Exorcist: Believer” and numerous other movies later moved their premiere dates after it was reported that Swift’s movie was also premiering on the same day. The movie has already grossed more than $100 Million. With debt and a severe shortage of big movies to show in future months, this fall, Swift’s film is expected to save theaters all around the world.
While Swift continues her heartfelt helpfulness throughout her tour, she proceeds to set a standard that her fans appear to follow. You can’t talk about Taylor Swift without mentioning her loyal and dedicated fanbase known as the “Swifties.” Major craft stores like Michaels have noticed a 300% sales increase days before The Eras Tour dates. Notable examples include the 400% increase in Detroit and the more than 500% increase in Swift’s home state of Pennsylvania. The reason for this rise in craft store sales is the popular friendship bracelet-making beads. When Taylor Swift’s latest album “Midnights” launched on October 21, 2022, one of the more popular songs named “You’re On Your Own, Kid” contained a lyric that Swifties found endearing. “So make the friendship bracelets/Take the moment and taste it” is what Swifties had heard, so that’s exactly what they did. If you’ve been to The Eras Tour, then you know how it goes. Swifties create a warm and inviteful attitude that makes you feel like you’re a part of one big loving family. Fans who are strangers will walk up to one another with giddy, childlike excitement to exchange homemade friendship bracelets with lyrics, inside jokes, or album names strung along on an invisible string with cohesive colors that correlate with different Taylor Swift eras.
After The Eras Tour was over halfway through its initial dates, international dates were announced on June 20, 2023. When the U.S. shows had concluded in LA and the announcement of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on August 9, 2023, Swift had a brief break until August 24, when she began the start of her international Eras Tour leg in Mexico City. During her stop there, she rented out 179 rooms at the 5-star hotel “Four Seasons” for her entire Eras Tour Staff. The head of the Mexico City Hotel Association Alberto Albarrán Leyva told the newspaper Milenio, “These concerts are going to help us a lot because August was going to drop a bit in terms of occupancy rate in the summer.” Swift’s shows in Mexico City generated an estimated Mex$1,000,000,000 ($59 million) in revenue across the city.
Along with helping the economies of other countries, Swift’s tour is going to bolster the U.S. economy too. A market research software company called QuestionPro collected data from 592 Swifties who responded to an opt-in online survey. With information from their answers and average concert attendance, the company estimates that Swift’s fans collectively spend about $93 million per show on tickets, merchandise, travel, hotels, food, and outfits. By the end of Swift’s Eras Tour, it is expected that she will have $5.7 billion set to boost the country’s economy.
In June, QuestionPro (as mentioned above) estimated Swift’s tour could help add $5 billion to the worldwide economy. After the opening weekend of the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” movie, AMC Theaters estimated that a total of $126 million to $130 million would be added to the global economy. When Swift continues on her international tour leg, it’s expected that if direct and indirect spending continues at its current rate, The Eras Tour could generate a global economic impact of more than $13 billion to nearly $28 billion, according to QuestionPro and US Travel Association.
The economic impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour will be felt worldwide. Swift’s tour will begin again this November and South America will be the next to benefit from her presence. She will once again stimulate multiple industries as her tour travels internationally. Swift is a person who actively advocates for communities and donates to them, essentially giving back to all those who have supported her throughout her career. She sets an example of overall goodness, acceptance, and individuality. Smart business decisions and fierce loyalty have helped build her incredible following. Regardless of whether or not you enjoy her music, you can’t deny the positive effect Swift has on the world.
