Beyonce’s tour may have pushed Swedish inflation higher, but Taylor Swift could be having en even greater economic impact with her Eras extravaganza by helping to keep the US out of a recession.
Swifties’ spending got a shout-out in an unusual place Thursday: the Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book,” a summary and analysis of economic activity and conditions around the U.S. published eight times a year.
The report released earlier this week included a section from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia that mentioned Swift’s three-day stop in the City of Brotherly Love in May.
Overall, the region that the bank examines saw “slight growth” in tourism in the April-to-June period, the report said, but the recovery is slowing, particularly in leisure travel. Spending was down among those who did travel, it said, with one notable exception.
“Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May 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 report said.
Swift performed May 12, 13 and 14 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, the closest big city to her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania. The 12-time Grammy winner has been drawing huge numbers for her first tour in five years, which when completed will have featured 131 concerts across 17 states and five continents.
The hotel-occupancy rate in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, approached 100% during Swift’s visit to western Pennsylvania last month, according to Business Insider, which reported that hotel reservation platforms crashed because of the surge in web traffic. Data shared with Insider by Booking.com showed hotel prices more than tripled in some cities ahead of the tour.
This weekend, Swift is in Denver, where the lowest cost option available Friday was a Motel 6 outside of town for $329 per night, a search on several travel sites revealed. The most reasonable options for lodging available were all in Colorado Springs, about 70 miles away.
Swift’s two Denver shows are expected to contribute roughly $140 million to Colorado’s economy, local research outfit Common Sense Institute projected. That includes $38 million in ticket sales, equal to 63% of the total sales at legendary amphitheater Red Rocks for all of 2022, its “Swiftonomics” report said.
A June poll of Eras concertgoers found they were spending, on average, $1,328 between tickets, travel, merchandise, lodging, and food to see the shows.
Common Sense Institute said “this amounts to more than $200 million in direct consumer spending associated with the Denver concerts.”
It’s not the first time this year that powerhouse singers were seen having such an economic impact. Similar spending by Beyonce fans who swarmed Stockholm for the kickoff of her Renaissance World Tour was suspected of contributing to an increase in inflation in Sweden in May.
