How Taylor Swift and her adoring fans will give UK huge lift with £500m summer spending spree
TAYLOR SWIFT will give the UK a massive lift this summer by sparking a £500million spending spree.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer hailed Swiftymania for putting rocket boosters under the tourism industry here.
Economists reckon US superstar Taylor, 34, is the biggest thing in music since Beatlemania in the Sixties.
Her globetrotting Eras Tour, which began in the States in March last year and will close in December in Canada, has already smashed records to become the highest-grossing tour in history — and is forecast to net her £3.2BILLION.
UK pubs, restaurants and hotels will cash in massively as she plays 15 arena dates — in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff then London in June, and again in London in August.
A staggering 1.1million tickets have been sold for the UK gigs, and transport firms and clothes stores are also among those set to coin it.
Adoring Swifties, as her fans are known, are expected to splurge around £500 a head on tickets and other costs.
Everything Taylor touches turns to gold. Sales for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) boosted vinyl sales so much, vinyl is back in the inflation basket after 30 years
Danni Hewson
Danni Hewson, financial analysis chief at investment platform AJ Bell, said: “Everything Taylor touches turns to gold.
“Sales for her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album (released in October) boosted vinyl sales so much that vinyl is now in the basket for inflation after a 30-year absence.
“If she goes to an NFL game, suddenly everyone is watching American football — including Swifty fans in the UK.
Friendship bracelets
“In America, research showed that each fan spent on average $1,327, more than £1,000, going to a concert.
“That is the ticket, but also things like food, drink, travel and merchandise.
“America is a massive place and lots of people will be flying by plane to attend concerts and stay overnight.
“We can estimate that, in the UK, each concert-goer will be spending about £500.”
Danni reckons it will see a £550million spending spree in the UK.
She says this is equal to 0.09 per cent of UK GDP, or the annual value of all goods and services we produce.
Kate Nicholls, head of trade body UK Hospitality, thinks Swiftymania this summer could be even higher.
She predicted it would see an extra £500million spent in pubs, restaurants and hotels alone.
Kate added: “The unprecedented demand for tickets to Taylor Swift’s UK tour will certainly translate into increased demand for hotels, as well as driving more visits to pubs, bars and restaurants in cities when the tour comes to town.”
Ministers are also rubbing their hands in glee.
Lucy Frazer added: “Our love story with live music continues as Swiftymania hits our shores this summer.
“Taylor’s 15 shows here are set to generate hundreds of millions of pounds for the economy and will boost our brilliant tourism sector as we welcome fans from around the world.”
Taylor is the world’s biggest music star and the gold rush her Eras Tour has created wherever it goes has been dubbed Swiftonomics.
Los Angeles enjoyed a $320million boost to its GDP after Taylor played six concerts there, according to the California Center for Jobs and the Economy.
Singapore was so desperate for Taylor to play there and nowhere else in South East Asia last month that it reportedly paid her incentives of more than £2million for each of her six gigs there — to boost its tourism.
Now tourism bosses in Britain are looking to jump on the bandwagon, too.
Gig tickets cost between £58 and £387, but excited fans are expected to fork out hundreds more staying in hotels and eating and drinking, as well as buying new outfits and travelling to concerts.
Hotels in Wembley, Liverpool, and Cardiff are hiking prices by around 500 per cent when the tour arrives.
A room in a Travelodge in Liverpool will surge from £45 a night to £220.
Each concert-goer is expected to dress up in the style of their favourite Swifty era, which means splashing out cash on party gear.
Taylor is also responsible for a global boom in friendship bracelets, which her fans wear and swap at her gigs.
Makers selling on online retail platform Etsy have made tens of thousands of pounds from the craze.
Demand was so high when Taylor played Australia in February that craft shops in Brisbane suffered a “great bead shortage”.
Meanwhile, at The Black Dog pub in Vauxhall, South London, business has never been better since Taylor sang about it in her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, released earlier this month.
Danni Hewson added: “People want to live Taylor’s life — go where she goes, eat where she eats, walk where she walks, in the same way you had Beatlemania, with people wanting to go to places like Penny Lane.
“This is a carbon copy of that.
“She is as exciting as The Beatles to an entirely different generation of fans.”
It's the Tay Tay Paylist
$4.1 Billion -Taylor Swift is personally expected to make from the global Eras Tour
£500 – Each Swifty is expected to spend on one of Taylor’s UK gigs (tickets, merchandise and more)
$1,327 – Each Swifty spent attending one of Taylor’s US gigs
0.09% – expected boost to UK GDP from the Eras Tour
1.1 Million – TS concert tickets estimated to have been sold in the UK
$320 Million – Estimated boost to LA’s GDP from just six TS tour dates there
£2 Million – ‘Grant’ Singapore reportedly gave Taylor for every date she played