Taylor Swift is many things, a pop icon, a childless cat lady, an NFL WAG –– but to the top brass at Hyatt Hotels, she is a cash cow.
“She had a much bigger impact on Hyatt than the Olympics in Paris did,” Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian said at the Bank of America 2024 Gaming & Lodging Conference, Hotels Mag reported. In conversation with Hyatt CFO Joan Bottarini, Hoplamazian said that Swift’s Era’s Tour has been a major revenue driver for the hospitality giant. Part of the Swift surge was due to exorbitant ticket prices for U.S. shows, which prompted many American fans to travel to the star’s European concerts.
“There is a Taylor Swift effect because it was cheaper to take a flight to Europe and see Taylor Swift than it was to get tickets sometimes for the concerts in the United States,” Hoplamazian said. “I think she contributed a couple hundred basis points to global GDP this year — I’m not kidding.”
The Eras Tour minted Taylor Swift as a billionaire. It also became the first to surpass $1 billion in revenue, and is the highest-grossing tour on record, according to Investopedia’s piece on Swiftonomics. The economic, social and cultural impact of the tour has been so significant it has its own Wikipedia page. Economists estimate the North American leg of the tour generated $4.6 billion in economic activity, according to published reports.
The European leg this summer coincided with a post-pandemic pent up demand for travel abroad. Spending on leisure remains elevated above pre-pandemic levels, Hoplamazian said.
“A lot more Americans — and I mean a lot more —traveled to Europe this year,” he said, adding that Hyatt’s performance in the region was up 12 percent in the second quarter this year.
He anticipates sustained spending in the sector, saying, “We’ll have roughly the same leisure demand and leisure revenue base for the company globally this year as we did last year.”–– Kate Hinsche