Taylor Swift might have finished the first leg of her Eras Tour, but that doesn’t mean her money-making era has come to an end.
The pop star is set to earn as much as $4.1 billion from her shows, The Washington Post reported on Friday. That’s according to estimates from Peter Cohan, an associate professor of management at Babson College, who assumed Swift would keep the typical artist’s share of about 85 percent of tour revenue. To put the total number into perspective, it’s more than the yearly economic output of 42 countries around the world.
“You look at how much consumers are spending to see Taylor Swift, and it is quite an astonishing amount,” Dan Fleetwood, the president of research and insights at QuestionPro, told the Post. “And not only are they spending this money, but in a lot of cases, they’re saying they would gladly do it again.”
Fleetwood’s company surveyed 592 Swifties and estimated that fans spent about $93 million per show on everything from tickets to merch to food to travel. That all adds up to a $5.7 billion influx to the U.S. economy, with individual cities seeing an additional millions of dollars each. For example, the California Center for Jobs and the Economy predicted a $320 million bump for Los Angeles County. The Common Sense Institute, which looks at Colorado’s economy, expected Denver to get a $140 million boost.
Throughout the country, hotels, restaurants, and other local businesses around Eras Tour stops saw the benefits. In Seattle, downtown hotels set a record for single-day revenue, bringing in $7.4 million. Small businesses that hosted Swift-themed events or sold items related to the tour saw extra profits of $10,000 or even $50,000. And around the stadiums where Swift performed, there were more jobs with better pay than usual.
“The [Eras Tour] was a shot in the arm to a part of the regional economy that’s really been lagging,” Mike Kahoe, the chief economist for California’s Center for Jobs and the Economy, told The Washington Post. “It brought some much-needed dollars to the tourism industry.”
And Swift isn’t done yet. The movie version of the Eras Tour has already sold more than $100 million in global presales. And the singer will start performing her show internationally next month, with a few more stops in North America along the way.
It may have been Taylor Swift’s summer, but it’s on track to be her year, too.
