Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ will hit Europe next month, starting in Paris in May and ending in London in August with 49 shows. Authorities here are hoping for the economic “boost” that the female singer can create.
With the convenience of travel when belonging to the EU, countries including France, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland are trying to create created a staggered ticket sales system between countries, so that Taylor Swift fans can attend as many shows as possible, thereby bringing profits to their country.
The Eras Tour brought in more than $1 billion last year, making it the highest-grossing concert series ever
The Guardian
Accordingly, the above system is designed to prioritize true fans over “speculators” – people who buy and resell tickets to make a quick profit. Currently, fans can register for tickets at many destinations across Europe to increase their chances of participating in this show.
Recently, some European cities said the demand for hotels and short-term rental accommodation has increased sharply this summer, when the “storm” The Eras Tour is about to hit. In Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, the number of rooms this June for the concert took place has been sold out since August last year – just one month after tickets to the shows went on sale.
In Paris, where fans predict Taylor Swift will add to her performance list new songs from her album The Tortured Poets Department released this weekend, 80% of hotels and apartments posted online are full. In Warsaw, on the day the singer performed, only 9% of hotels listed on the same website were still operating.
Neighboring cities can get a big boost of revenue as fans look for places to live. In the photo, Essen is located next to Gelsenkirchen – the German stop of the tour
The Guardian
However, not all 18 cities on The Eras Tour are attractive tourist destinations . From July 17 to 19, Taylor Swift will perform 3 concerts at an indoor stadium with a capacity of 65,000 people in the Ruhr valley, western Germany. The unfamiliar name of this city has made some people doubt whether it exists. However, even here, the influx of fans of the singer is temporarily changing the hotel market, with any available two-bedroom apartments priced at 800-2,000 euros a night.
Of all the tour’s European stops, Vienna is seeing the most notable impact on the rental market, with booking rates for Taylor Swift concert nights recorded high in February 44% more than the same time last year. At the end of March, the number of nights booked in the Austrian capital in August increased by 430% compared to the same period in 2023.
Along with accommodation needs comes travel and shopping. In Stockholm, authorities expect to welcome 159,000 visitors from 135 countries by mid-May this year, with expected spending of 50 million euros. Like other locations the tour visits, policymakers are hoping that Taylor Swift’s show will create an economic “boost”. The country’s tourism agency said it expected bookstores and second-hand clothing stores, rather than museums and royal palaces, to attract most visitors.
However, whether fans necessarily act like normal tourists is still a matter of debate. Maria Lexhagen – professor at the European Tourism Research Institute at Mid University (Sweden) – said: “Tourists are not necessarily interested in traditional buildings and 5-star restaurants. With youth, they are more likely to look for places where the female singer visits, hidden and discreet shops.”
A restaurant in suburban Sydney became famous when Taylor dined there in February this year
The Guardian
With the influx of people, public transportation has also been changed to welcome the unusually high number of tourists. Irish Rail said it will add night trains to and from locations near the stadium where the night takes place next June.
Meanwhile, airlines are more passive due to profits, so they cannot add flights or adjust prices. Officials at Lisbon airport said no additional flights would be authorized on the day of the tour, but currently the system records a relatively high overload factor. This also raises the issue of environmental pollution from flights and fans’ travel and stops.
