By Chris Dorrell
Taylor Swift arrives in the UK for her Eras tour over the summer and economists will no doubt be very excited about it.
In recent years they have started paying more attention to the impact that music concerts can have on the economy.
Given the Eras tour is expected to be the highest grossing ever, could Swift’s arrival in the UK show up in national statistics?
Economists at Nomura have put some thought into this vital question and concluded, unfortunately, that it probably won’t.
The UK’s economy is simply too big to be impacted on a national scale by a few concerts, no matter how epic.
But that’s not to say it won’t have an impact.
Beyonce’s Renaissance tour was credited with a bump in Swedish inflation as prices at hotels and restaurants rose in response to soaring demand. Danske Bank reckoned that some fans booked hotels up to 40 miles outside Stockholm for Beyonce’s gig.
Swift’s shows in the US have had a similar impact already. Nomura estimate that monthly ‘lodging away from home’ inflation rose 2.1 percentage points for cities included on the Eras tour.
George Moran, European economist at Nomura, said “there is already strong anecdotal evidence suggesting there will be a strong increase in hotel and restaurant inflation while Taylor Swift is performing”.
Travelodge said in August that all of its hotel rooms in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff were already sold out. There have also been reports of the price of hotel rooms tripling for the nights when Taylor Swift is performing.
So although the overall macroeconomic impact will be limited, it would be worth double checking whether your summer staycation will be affected by ‘Swiftflation’.
