Why are world leaders pleading to get Taylor Swift to tour their countries?

US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs onstage on the first night of her "Eras Tour" at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on March 31, 2023. Image: Suzzanne Cordeiro / AFP
 
Taylor Swift’s Eras tour not only crashed Ticketmaster—it’s on track to rake in $1.4 billion, making it the highest grossing tour ever. Forbes breaks down how much of this Taylor Swift will pocket.

A Pollstar report says that the first 22 performances grossed over $300 million. 

Forbes estimates that after paying concert promoters and production costs, she earned nearly $100 million from these performances.  

After taxes and expenses, she pockets roughly $30 million from the Eras tour, lifting her net worth to $780 million, including real estate and other assets.
 
How much does it cost to see Taylor Swift on this historic tour?

An average ticket sells for approx. $253, or Rs 20,000. Each concert sells roughly 54,000 tickets and in all, close to 1.1million people have bought tickets to the Eras tour. This makes Taylor Swift’s tour twice as big as the last record holder: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s $142 million. And this is only her US leg of the tour. Fifty international performances are coming up, between now and August 2024.
 
In fact, world leaders across four continents have pleaded with Taylor Swift to perform in their towns, hoping to get a taste of the Swiftonomics effect. When she is playing in town, reports show that the local economy benefits. In Chicago, hotel occupancy hit nearly 97 percent during her concert at Soldier Field. Even Las Vegas reported its highest post-pandemic tourism spend.
 
MPs and leaders from Canada, Australia, Thailand and Chile have all tweeted to Taylor Swift, asking her to consider making a stop, hoping to reap the economic benefits of her tour. One Canadian MP even filed an official grievance with the House of Commons, saying that Taylor Swift skipping Canada on her tour would deprive the country’s local economy of benefits. 

Also read: Meet the celebrities on the Forbes list of America's most successful businesswomen

Singapore is her only stop in South Asia on the tour, and millions from the region are vying for tickets to her six shows there.  
 
It has caused a spike in hotel and flight prices to Singapore, what economists are calling ‘Swiftflation’.  
 
Media reports say that because UOB bank credit cards had preferred access to tickets, there was a 45 percent surge in daily credit card applications in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam the week that she announced her concert dates.

Along with earnings from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), a re-record of her 2010 album that just dropped, the blockbuster Eras tour could push Taylor Swift’s net worth to a cool $900 million by next year.