Taylor Swift fans desperate to see the superstar’s Eras Tour are causing a spike in European air travel, United Airlines has revealed.
Demand for travel to Lisbon, Portugal, and Madrid, Spain, over the Memorial Day weekend has shot up by around 25 percent compared to last year, it said.
This surge is expected to continue over the summer as American fans flock to European cities – where concert tickets are significantly cheaper than for domestic tour dates.
Swift tickets in the typically cost more than $1,000 due to high demand and limited rules on reselling. In Europe, rules are much stricter.
Milan has seen the biggest surge in United passengers this summer – with demand up 45 percent for Swift’s show in July compared to last year.
Taylor Swift fans desperate to see the singer’s Eras Tour are causing a spike in European air travel, United Airlines has revealed
Flights to Munich at the end of July, meanwhile, have seen a 40 percent spike in demand compared to 2023, United revealed.
Bookings to other European cities where Swift is performing in the coming months, including Dublin and Edinburgh, are also surging, the airline said.
Many American fans are finding it cheaper to travel to see the singer overseas – even when the cost of flights and accommodation is factored in.
This is due, in part, to European Union regulations which cap the amount of money ticket resellers are able to make – and a strong dollar.
For example, secondary market tickets for the concert in Stockholm, Sweden, earlier this month were as little as $300 the week before the show, CNN reported.
A roundtrip flight from New York to Stockholm costs an average of $700, according to travel site Kayak, and a four-star hotel costs around $300.
That is compared to shows in Miami last year where tickets alone were going for as much as $8,500 on resale site StubHub.
The willingness to travel is likely not to come as a surprise to Swift fans, who are notoriously dedicated to the star.
The American leg of the worldwide Eras Tour last summer generated an estimated $5 billion in consumer spending for the US economy – as fans travelled across the country to see the show.
One fan who travelled from the UK to see the concert in Paris earlier this month told DailyMail.com the majority of the audience were Americans.
Delta Air Lines also told CNN that demand is up for American fans travelling to see Swift’s European tour.
It is yet another example of so-called ‘Swiftonomics’, a term coined to describe the singer’s ability to impact the economies of the cities and countries which she has visited so far on her global tour.
Some so-called ‘Swifties’ have spent thousands of dollars on hotels, travel and costumes in preparation for concerts.
According to a recent report from Barclays bank in the UK, more than 1 million Swifties will attend the UK shows later in the summer.
It found the typical fan is expected to spend $810 (£642) on travel, accommodation and other expenses, boosting the economy by a total of $953 million (£755 million).
‘When it comes to cultural icons like Taylor Swift – like we saw with Elvis and Beatlemania in the 50s and 60s – supporters have such a strong connection to the artist and to the rest of the fandom that the desire to spend becomes even more powerful,’ Dr. Peter Brooks, chief behavioral scientist at Barclays, said in the report.
