By: Katherine Callaway
As a 33-year old woman, can you imagine being one of the biggest economic contributors in America? Taylor Swift is an American pop singer-songwriter who tends to write songs about her different life experiences. She talks on friendship, heartbreak, love, and family, as well as her various experiences throughout her life.She has written ten albums, and she has held six very impactful tours. So, the big question is: how did she become one of the most important women in the American economy?
The biggest contributor to Taylor Swift’s recent wealth is her current worldwide stadium tour, “The Eras Tour.” This tour is a combination of all of Taylor’s different albums, or, as she calls them, “eras.”While going to a concert may not seem like a grand economic impact, Swift’s concept of a tour was very different. Her shows were, on average, three and a half hours long with no breaks or intermission.
Taylor Swift fans are known as Swifties. They spent months planning out their show outfits to fit one of Swift’s eras and were prepared to spend lots of money on merchandise and travel to experience this once-in-a lifetime opportunity. According to Alexandra Canal and Stephanie Mikulich from Yahoo Finances, “Swift’s Eras Tour is also expected to generate as much as $5 billion in consumer spending in the US. People are dropping money on plane and hotel tickets, fun outfits and merch, $75 hoodies, $55 long-sleeve shirts, and we didn’t even talk about ticket prices. With resale tickets selling between $500 to $7,000 a pop.”
Not only was Swift making money herself, but the cities she visited also saw an increase in profits. Even three years after the pandemic, some areas were not fully out of their funk. In every city Swift went to, the rise of tourism was very high. In Chicago, for example, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism levels saw a dramatic decrease. After the general decrease, the rise back to normality started. According to Kay Cesinger from ABC 7 News, “ And so they were back. So we had a lot of conventions coming back, and their numbers were very strong. They were looking at as high as 80-85 percent recovery many of them.” While tourism was coming back to the city, it still wasn’t at 100 percent capacity. Then Taylor Swift arrived in the city. Citizens were told to try and avoid the city as there would be mass amounts of people and traffic. Chicago was full of Switfie and was looking like pre-pandemic Chicago. Taylor announced on X formally known as Twitter “ Chicago set its new all-time record for total hotel rooms occupied! Thanks to three nights of Taylor Swift, the ASCO Annual Meeting, the James Beard Awards, and more. This isn’t just post-pandemic–we had more rooms filled than ever in Chicago’s history!” Due to all different events, including the Taylor Swift concert, the city was seeing itself again!
Taylor Swift is helping the American economy get back on track. While the pandemic took a massive toll on the economy, “The Eras Tour” is helping the country bounce back. Cities are generating more revenue from merchandise and hotel rooms to help them return to their normal pre-pandemic atmosphere. The power of Swift has left positive economic impacts on many cities in the United States and she will continue to do so throughout her career.