Thousands of ride-or-die fans who on her U.S. concert tour last year or didn鈥檛 want to buy exorbitantly priced tickets to see her again found an out-of-the-way solution: Fly to Europe.
The pop star is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her in Paris on Thursday, and planeloads of Swifties plan to follow Miss Americana across the pond in the coming weeks. The arena where Swift is appearing said Americans bought 20% of the tickets for her four sold-out shows. Stockholm, the tour鈥檚 next stop, expects about 10,000 concertgoers from the U.S.
A concert might sound like an odd raison d鈥檈tre for visiting a foreign country, especially when fans can watch the Eras Tour from home via the on Disney+. Yet says continent-hopping by Swift鈥檚 devotees is part of a larger trend it dubbed 鈥渢our tourism鈥� while observing a pattern that emerged during Beyonc茅鈥檚 .
Some North American fans who plan to fly overseas for the Eras Tour said they justified the expense after noticing that tighter and resales in Europe made seeing Swift perform abroad no more costly 鈥� and potentially cheaper 鈥� than catching her .
鈥淭hey said, 鈥橶ait a minute, I can either spend $1,500 to go see my favorite artist in Miami, or I can take that $1,500 and buy a concert ticket, a round-trip plane ticket, and three nights in a hotel room,鈥� Melanie Fish, an Expedia spokesperson and travel expert, said.
That was the experience of Jennifer Warren, 43, who lives in St. Catharines, a city in the Niagara region of Ontario. She and her 11-year-old son love Swift but what she considered as decently priced tickets in the U.S. Undeterred, Warren and her husband decided to plan a European vacation around wherever she managed to get seats. It turned out to be Hamburg, Germany.
鈥淵ou get out, you get to see the world, and you get to see your favorite artist or performer at the same time, so there are a lot of wins to it,鈥� said Warren, who works as the director of research and innovation for a mutual insurance company.
The three VIP tickets she secured close to the stage 鈥� 鈥淚 would call it brute-force dumb luck鈥� 鈥� cost 600 euros ($646) each. Swift subsequently announced six November tour dates in Toronto, within driving distance of Warren鈥檚 home. 鈥淎bsolute nose-bleed seats鈥� already are going for 3,000 Canadian dollars ($2,194) on secondary resale sites like Viagogo, Warren said.
TOUR TOURISM: IS IT REALLY A THING?
Hard-core fans trailing their favorite singer or band on tour is not a new phenomenon. 鈥淕roupie鈥� emerged in the late 1960s as a somewhat derogatory word for the ardent followers of rock bands. Deadheads took to the road in the 1970s to pursue the Grateful Dead from city to city.
More recently, music festivals like California鈥檚 Coachella and England鈥檚 Glastonbury, and concert residencies in Las Vegas by the likes of Elton John, Lady Gaga and Adele, have attracted travelers to places they wouldn鈥檛 otherwise visit, Fish noted.
Travel and entertainment analysts have also spoken of a pent-up consumer demand for 鈥渆xperiences鈥� over material objects since the coronavirus pandemic. Some think the to broaden their fandom horizons is part of the same mass cultural correction.
鈥淚t does seem like it鈥檚 more than a structural shift, maybe a personality transformation we all went through,鈥� said Natalia Lechmanova, the chief Europe economist for the Mastercard Economics Institute.
As across Europe, Lechmanova expects restaurants and hotels to see the same boost that Mastercard observed within a 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) radius of concert venues in the U.S. cities she visited in 2023. The U.S. dollar鈥檚 strong value against the euro may also increase retail spending on apparel, memorabilia, beauty products and supplies for the friendship bracelets fans exchange as part of the Eras Tour experience, the economist said.
Former college roommates Lizzy Hale, 34, who lives in Los Angeles, and Mitch Goulding, 33, who lives in Austin, Texas, already had tickets to see the Eras Tour in L.A. last summer when they decided to try to get ones for Paris, London or Edinburgh, Scotland, too. They saw a Europe concert trip as a makeup for travel plans they had in May 2020 to celebrate Goulding鈥檚 birthday but had to cancel due to the pandemic.
Goulding managed to secure VIP tickets for one of Swift鈥檚 three Stockholm shows. He, Hale and two other friends scheduled a 10-day trip that also includes time in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
鈥淎s people who enjoy traveling and enjoy music, if you can find an opportunity to combine the two, it鈥檚 really special,鈥� said Hale, who is pregnant with her first child.
FOR STOCKHOLM, 120,000 SWIFTIES CAN鈥橳 BE WRONG
The local economic impact of what the zeitgeist has termed 鈥淪wiftonomics鈥� and the 鈥淪wift lift鈥� . It鈥檚 no wonder the exclusive arrangement Singapore鈥檚 government made with Swift to make the city-state her only tour stop in Southeast Asia earlier this year aroused .
No European governments have complained of their countries not being among the dozen selected for the Europe leg of the Eras Tour, although some fans have expressed surprise that Gelsenkirchen, a city with a population of about 264,000 is one of the three cities in Germany that made the cut.
Airbnb reported Tuesday that searches on its platform for the U.K. cities where Swift is performing in June and August 鈥� Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London 鈥� increased an average of 337% when tickets went on sale last summer.
Not to be outdone when it comes to trend-spotting, cited the demand as an example of 鈥減assion tourism,鈥� or travel 鈥渄riven by concerts, sports and other cultural events.鈥�
, 120,000 out-of-towners from 130 countries 鈥� among them 10,000 from the U.S. 鈥� are expected to swarm Sweden鈥檚 capital this month, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Carl Bergqvist said. Stockholm is the only Scandinavian city on Swift鈥檚 tour, and airlines added extra flights from nearby Denmark, Finland and Norway to bring people to the May 17-19 shows, he said.
The city鈥檚 40,000 hotel rooms are sold out even though prices skyrocketed for the tour dates, Bergqvist said. Concert visitors are expected to pump around 500 million Swedish kroner, or over $46 million, into the local economy over the course of their stays, an estimate that does not include what they paid for Swift tickets or to get to Sweden, he said.
鈥淪o this is going to be huge for the tourism sector in Sweden and Stockholm in particular,鈥� Bergqvist said.
Nightclubs, restaurants and are seizing the opportunity to cater to fans with Taylor Swift-themed events, such as karaoke, quizzes and after-concert dance parties.
Houston resident Caroline Matlock, 29, saw Swift more than a year ago when the Eras Tour came to the Texas city. Now she鈥檚 making more friendship bracelets and trying to learn a few words of Swedish as she prepares to see the 3 1/2-hour show in Stockholm. The idea of seeing Swift in Europe was her friend鈥檚, and Matlock needed some persuading at first.
鈥淚 was like, 鈥業 only want to go if it鈥檚 a country I haven鈥檛 been to. I鈥檝e seen Taylor Swift,鈥欌�� she said.
Visiting the Scandinavian cities of Oslo and Gothenburg is on their itinerary. The concert is the last night of the trip and Matlock looks forward to interacting with Swifties from other countries: 鈥淎mericans tend to have a very obsessive culture, especially Taylor Swift-related, so I鈥檓 curious if the crowd will be more toned-down.鈥�
WILL TOUR TOURISM ENDURE AFTER ERAS?
It remains to be seen if the music tourism trend has legs as long and strong as Swift鈥檚 and Beyonc茅鈥檚, and if it will carry over to Billie Eilish, Usher and other artists with world tours scheduled next year. Expedia鈥檚 Fish thinks other big-name artists in Europe this summer will prove that booking a foreign trip around a concert is catching on.
Kat Morga, a travel consultant based in Nashville, isn鈥檛 so sure. Morga saw Swift perform in Nashville last year and helped two clients with school-aged children book European family vacations this summer that include seeing Swift in concert. But she thinks the difficulty of navigating ticket purchases through language barriers, currency conversions, international banking regulations and the risk of cancellations will limit the appeal of regular gig getaways.
鈥淚 think this is an anomaly,鈥� Morga said. 鈥淧eople aren鈥檛 typically going to build their $20,000 huge family vacation only because Taylor Swift is there. She鈥檚 the one-off. She鈥檚 special.鈥�
Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel, whose company operates Booking.com, priceline.com, agoda.com, Kayak and OpenTable, is even less enthusiastic about concert tours as a tourism instigator. The Swift Effect causes a 鈥渓ittle blip鈥� when the superstar goes to smaller destinations, but for the worldwide travel industry, 鈥渙ne star touring around does not make a difference,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t may just shift it a little bit. A person was going to go to the Caribbean for a week vacation. Instead that person (says), 鈥楲et鈥檚 travel to the Taylor Swift thing,鈥欌�� Fogel said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 increase it. It just moves it from here to there.鈥�
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