Dubbed the ‘Swift Lift’ or ‘Swiftonomics’, the cultural and economic impact of Taylor Swift’s hugely anticipated The Eras Tour is not only contained to concert tickets but has also prompted massive surges in travel searches for host cities across the Asia Pacific.
Amadeus travel search data shows an extraordinary increase in interest for the cities featured on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour itinerary.
The volume of searches to Australia peaked in June 2023 after tickets went on public sale on 30 June. It resulted in an average week-on-week spike of 44 per cent locally. Searches from NZ to Australia rose 240 per cent.
Qantas added 11,000 extra seats to Sydney and Melbourne for the shows. Air NZ also upped capacity by 2,000 seats, even renaming one of its flights, NZ1989, in tribute.
Virgin Australia also reported a 625 per cent increase in interstate bookings to Sydney for the concert dates.
In the APAC region, total searches to Singapore coinciding with Taylor Swift concert ticket sales rose 18 per cent on average week-on-week.
Meanwhile, the Tokyo concert lottery result announcement sparked an average uptick of 15 per cent in domestic searches and 10 per cent in international searches.
Inbound travellers from Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand showed interest in both shorter and longer trips. Amadeus said this indicates a desire to travel for the concert and extend their stay for leisure purposes.
Amadeus SVP Travel Marketing APAC Karun Budhraja said it’s a positive sign for the regional economy and tourism industry.
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Already well into her 52-date US stadium spectacular, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is creating a cultural and economic impact on tourism and sending concert records tumbling.
According to InStyle Australia, the Taylor Swift juggernaut will add an estimated AUD$346 million in local expenditure.
In comparison, the predicted economic impact of The Eras Tour on the US economy is USD$5 billion.
It even prompted a 7.7 per cent year-on-year US hotel price rise, adding USD$98.2 million in room revenue in the first three months alone.