‘Telleronomics’? Taylor Swift’s tour has sparked a wave of consumption in America. Does fever come here again and again? , economy

“Taylornomics”. A phenomenon involving Taylor Swift has been told around the world like this: When the singer arrives in a city for a show on her “Eras Tour”, she brings with her a wave of expenses. Swifties (as fans are called) fill a range of hotels, restaurants, bars and services. In the United States, cities already say the singer’s tour has helped them recover from the economic impact of the pandemic, bringing back tourists, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

In Brazil, excitement over Taylor Swift’s arrival led to a ticket race, with hundreds of fans braving the sun, cold, hunger and three days without a shower to guarantee tickets. The singer is coming to Brazil in November, and this fever has a tendency to go global. The tour will travel across five continents and feature over a hundred performances.

The effect is such that even the US Central Bank cited the impact of the singer’s concerts on the economy. In Philadelphia, hotel revenue saw its biggest gain since the start of the pandemic, largely due to an influx of guests at a Taylor Swift concert in the city.

The term ‘Telleronomics’ refers to the term “freakonomics”, the title of a best seller by Steven D. Levitt. According to the author of the book, translated into Portuguese it would be something like “freak economy”.

The “Eras Tour” is on track to become the biggest tour in concert history, with potential earnings approaching $1 billion. Football stadiums, which can seat more than 70,000 people, are overcrowded. And because the singer spends several days in a city, this gives local businesses ample time to attract money from fans.

Sales strategies vary. Stores sell donuts with Taylor Swift’s face on them and invent drinks named after her songs. According to the WSJ, a Nashville museum mounted an exhibit of Swift’s costumes to match her performance and recorded its best month of revenue in its 65-year history, with 114,000 people buying tickets.

“People used to line up at the store and call all day because they wanted a Taylor donut. I haven’t worked so hard since we opened the store a decade ago,” said Teresa Fox, co-owner of Glamdoll Donuts, who owns the store. “We had 18-hour days where we did nothing but make Taylor Swift donuts.”

People were more willing to take the weekend off to see Swift, according to Mara Klanig, a senior analyst at the economic research firm Camoine Associates.

“There was a pent-up demand to go out, have fun and be social,” he told the British newspaper. “People are willing to travel far to see it.”

The Common Sense Institute, an organization that tracks the local economy, predicts that the concerts will add $140 million to Colorado’s GDP. For the entire US tour, the institute expects to save an additional $4.6 billion in consumer spending.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, expenses related to Swift’s tour totaled approximately $48 million, according to the city’s tourism agency, VisitCinci.

Cities across America have gone out of their way to welcome Swifties. Glendale, Arizona temporarily changed its name to “Swift City”. In honor of some of the singer’s albums, Chicago’s Willis Tower was lit in purple and gold one night, and green and navy blue the next,

Earlier this month, Ticketmaster had to suspend ticket sales for concerts in France due to the shutdown. Over 900,000 people were waiting to buy tickets that day.

The singer will not perform in New Zealand, but the airline Air New Zealand said it experienced a “Swift outbreak”: people rushed to book flights to Australia, where Swift will perform in February. The British newspaper says the airline had to add 14 more flights to accommodate 3,000 more people. Following Swift’s fifth album, some flights are getting a special Swifty flight number: NZ1989.