Taylor Swift Eras Tour UK: Could Swiftonomics really boost the British economy?

Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour is set to arrive in the UK in June, kicking off a string of dates that will see hundreds of thousands of Swifties flock to major cities to catch the global megastar.

The singer is set to open her UK tour in Edinburgh on June 7, with a total of 15 concerts and conclude in London on August 20.

With millions of people signing up for tickets in the UK, and those for her Wembley gigs reportedly selling out in 14 minutes, the popstar’s tour will see host cities flooded with crowds of Swifties in the latest music craze at the Beatlesmania.

The singer’s shows even see masses of fans gathering outside the venues, even if they don’t even have tickets.

Such is the superstar’s popularity that the tour has already grossed more than the entire GDP of a number of small countries, having raised over $1 billion before the end of 2023.

With the UK still in choppy economic waters, the star’s upcoming shows could provide a welcome boost to the economy, as the tour is expected to bring in a staggering £450 million in spending related to Taylor Swift from viewers, according to exclusive data. for This is Money by JM Finn.

However, the wealth manager said this figure, while impressive and a “welcome contributor” to the economy, “is hardly moving”.

JM Finn said the concerts, which will take place at Murrayfield, Edinburgh; Principality Stadium, Cardiff; Anfield, Liverpool and Wembley, London, are expected to welcome more than 1.1 million visitors, with an average of 75,000 at each show.

On average, concert-goers are estimated to spend around £400 each, with costs covering everything from the tickets themselves (around £110 for a pre-sale general admission standing ticket last year), to food, hotel and travel.

Overnight: Travel and accommodation costs for fans traveling to cities represent a large portion of fan spending.

Based on this, JM Finn said the entire UK leg of the tour would represent around 0.08 per cent of UK GDP, with the contribution calculated using Q4 2023 GDP of £566.7bn .

As tour dates are spread across the second and third quarters, the wealth manager said this would amount to 0.04 percent each quarter.

Jack Summers, research assistant and JM Finn said: “Taylor Swift is a superstar with many fans across the UK willing to spend a pretty penny to see her perform live in 2024 as venues quickly expand. sold out and the addition of new dates bear witness to this. .

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“Significant sums of money are being spent on the Eras tour, with regional benefits expected to be felt, but, unfortunately, this is unlikely to have a notable impact on UK GDP.”

In comparison, Question Pro data shows an average spend on Taylor Swift’s 53 Eras tour dates in the US of around $1,300 per person, or just over £1,000, indicating costs higher travel and logistics costs due to the larger size of the United States.

In total, the U.S. leg of the tour is estimated to have added $4.96 billion in spending to the U.S. economy, equating to $1.31 billion in the third quarter alone, in which more than A quarter of the tour has taken place.

JM Finn said Swift’s tour may have contributed as much as 0.5 percent to the US’s $265 billion growth in the third quarter. Even that, the company said, is insignificant to the U.S. economy.

Summers added: “If fans hadn’t spent thousands of pounds on his tour, ask yourself if they would have spent it on other factors contributing to GDP? Maybe not to the same extent, but it would be an exaggeration to put too much faith in the “fast economy”.