Swifties vs. Olympians: Who Will Bring More Luxury Travelers to Paris?

PARIS — Try and come for Taylor Swift’s job. The superstar is playing a four-night stint in Paris, jumpstarting the 18-city European leg of the Eras Tour, and she may have drawn more Americans to France than the upcoming Olympics.

Jack Ezon, the CEO of Embark Beyond, a luxury travel agency based in New York City, said the Swift is generating five times the bookings as the summer games, as first reported in the Strait Times.

Although there is still time to arrange trips for the Olympics, held from July 26–Aug. 11, Ezon said his company has booked more than 200 Parisian vacations for Swifties. The average stay is three nights, and a third of the reservations are for mothers and daughters.

Cheaper to buy French vacation than one U.S. ticket
Swift changed up her three-plus-hour show to incorporate her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” She’s been working on the change for 8-9 months, since the singer-songwriter took a two-month break in fall 2023 to premiere her concert movie to theaters and release “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” The updates have driven up excitement and demand for the Eras Tour with American fans wanting to see the modified show.

“The tickets to go to Indianapolis are like $5,000 apiece,” says Stephanie Gottschalk waiting in line for the second Paris show with her daughter Brooklynn. “For us to fly here, stay in the hotel and buy the tickets was about $5,000 total. So half the price. And we got to experience Europe. We got to go to the Eiffel Tower and create memories that we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives.”

Dressed in “Bejeweled” outfits, the Gottschalks were already planning another trip back to Europe to see the record-breaking tour again.

“We’ve already started looking into Switzerland,” Stephanie says. Swift will play in Zürich’s Stadion Letzigrund for two nights July 9-10.

The Eras Tour will head back to the U.S. in the fall with October and November shows in Miami, New Orleans and Indianapolis. As of Saturday, the cheapest U.S. ticket on resale site StubHub.com was $1,615 for New Orleans. The most expensive VIP seat was worth $11,701 for Miami.

Global impact felt
The Swift Effect — a boost to local, state and national economies — was felt during the first year of the Eras Tour. According to Bloomberg Economics, Swift’s concerts contributed $4.3 billion to America’s gross domestic product. In Japan, the massive concert is estimated to have pumped $228 million (¥34.1 billion) into the country with $162.7 million (¥24.3 billion) going directly to Tokyo. In Australia, Swift was expected to sell $66 million worth of merchandise. Edwin Tong, Singapore politican and minister for culture, community and youth, said the country paid Swift $2-3 million dollars to exclusively play in the country.

Swift will perform Sunday night in La Défense Arena in Paris before heading to Stockholm, Sweden.