Taylor Swift’s gift as Aussie crisis looms

The possibility of a recession is looming over Australia, but the appearance of a global superstar next year could be the boost the country needs.

Taylor Swift’s Australian leg of her Eras Tour will begin on February 16 and run to February 26.

She will perform her almost three-hour set at Sydney’s Accord Stadium and Melbourne’s MCG to thousands of screaming fans.

Fans battled it out to secure their spots this week, with more than four million people attempting to score pre-sale tickets on Wednesday.

A day later, Frontier Touring announced it was adding two extra shows, boosting the number of tickets available in total from 450,000 to 630,000.

The power of Ms Swift was abundantly clear, with fans willing to fork out up to $1249.90 for tickets during a debilitating cost of living crisis.

And the spending didn’t stop there.

Since Ms Swift announced she was coming to Aussie shores, booking volumes for Hilton Sydney and Hilton Melbourne went up by 1129 per cent and up by 9400 pert cent respectively.

“We’ve witnessed a significant surge in bookings from Swiftie fans planning to stay at our Melbourne and Sydney hotels in February off the back of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour announcement last week,” Hilton Hotel’s Area Vice President and Head of Australasia, Paul Hutton, said.

“We’re expecting to see this jump up even further when the general public tickets go on sale on Friday so encourage fans lucky enough to score a ticket to book now.”.

Travel booking website Webjet has also reported a spike in searches for domestic flights to Sydney and Melbourne around the pop star tour dates in February.

There was a 282 per cent increase in searches for domestic flights to Sydney on February 22 to February 25 2024 in June this year compared to searches in May.

Meanwhile, domestic flights to Melbourne on February 15 to February 17 2024 saw a similar uptake in searches in June, with a 151 per cent increase compared to searches in May this year.

Some fans who managed to score tickets for the Melbourne shows have already reported struggling to find somewhere to stay with many hotels booking out within days.

When Ms Swift touches down next year, the economy is expected to be struggling even more with interest rate hikes.

Economists are predicting spending will have slowed dramatically by February, meaning Ms Swift’s appearance will see a much-needed spike.

And while Sydney and Melbourne will see the biggest boost from Ms Swift’s tour, AMP Capital’s Chief Economist Shane Oliver said many industries will benefit from the extra spending.

“There’s no doubt it’s going to be good for Sydney or Melbourne and around those venues,” Mr Oliver said.

“And we’ve seen in those US cities where Taylor Swift has toured you get a bit of a boost to the system.

“There will be accommodation demand, potential employment around those concerts and potentially it will provide a bit of a lift to airfares which will all create a bit of a relief.”

But Mr Oliver said the Reserve Bank of Australia might still be considered the Anti-Hero by not reducing interest rates to help the Aussie household budget.

“I suspect (the financial benefit of the tour) is fairly brief, around that time there’s a possibility the economy will be in a recession and we’ll need a T-Swift lift to shake it off,” he said.

“I don’t think it’ll be enough to bring us out of the darkness.

“But travel, accommodation and airfares will get a boost and it’ll show up in the CPI but it’s questionable as to whether it lasts beyond February.

“It won’t be durable because it’s not going to set off a permanent round of spending like interest rates changes do.”

Mr Oliver said the Eras Tour was “sort of like the Olympics” in terms of it’s financial benefit to the country.

“It might be something we might need at that time but I don’t think it’ll have a lasting effect,” he said.

“We won’t be adjusting our national monetary policy.

“It all disappears again when you look at it on an annual basis you can’t really see it.

“I think in the benefit might be in quarterly CPI data for the March quarter but it won’t be that much.”

“But it’s still a lift, it’s still a positive for the economy.”

Nine’s Finance Editor Chris Kohler said the tour will have a “noticeable impact come February, so that is going to be a big deal”.

Domestic travel is tipped to spike during this time as many fans will be travelling from outside of Melbourne and Sydney.

Virgin Australia saw a whopping 656 per cent increase in bookings to Melbourne and Sydney for Taylor Swift’s concert dates following the ticket release on Wednesday.

Swifties based in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide led the interstate fanfare with the most booked fares across the concert dates.

The panic many fans faced trying to secure a ticket saw Google searches for Taylor Swift surge by more than 50 per cent on the day of the first pre-sale on June 26, compared to the previous day.

Similar search interest occurred on June 28 when the second pre-sale occurred, which saw an increase of more than 400 per cent in Google searches.

With tours only announced for Sydney and Melbourne, Swifties in other states and territories were tossing up which state to visit in order to see their favourite artist.

Victorian fans obviously preferred to see Taylor at the MCG, with 93 per cent of Google searches conducted between June 22 and June 23 for Taylor Swift Melbourne compared to 7 per cent of searches for Taylor Swift Sydney.

New South Wales residents also preferred to stay in their own state for the show with 89 per cent searching for tickets.

But there were millions wanting to fly interstate to not miss out on the Eras Tour.

Tasmanians, South Australians, and West Australians also thought the MCG was a Gorgeous spot to see Ms Swift perform, with 71 per cent, 68 per cent and 57 per cent of fans searching the option respectively.

Meanwhile, Canberrans and Queenslanders were more interested in visiting Sydney for their chance to see the Anti-Hero singer perform, with 72 per cent and 56 per cent searching on Google respectively.

However, Northern Territorians might have a bit of Bad Blood with Sydney, with 56 per cent of fans searching for Taylor Swift Melbourne compared to 44 per cent opting for Sydney searches.

Ms Swift’s decisions to only play in Victoria and New South Wales sparked outrage among many fans, including some of the country’s biggest politicians.

Fisher MP and self-confessed Swiftie, Andrew Wallace, has pleaded with the superstar to schedule a concert date in Queensland.

“Taylor, I’m asking you, begging you, I’m pleading with you,” ” he told reporters days out from tickets going on sale.

“I’ll get down on my knees if I have to. Please come to Queensland. There are so many Swiftie fans in Queensland. I am one of them.

“To the guys at Frontier touring company, I don’t know why you left Queensland off, it’s the first time Taylor will be visiting Australia and not Queensland.”

Mr Wallace had even redesigned part of his website and started his own petition in a bid to get the star to come to Queensland.

Other politicians shared in his outrage, including Assistant Minister Patrick Gorman, who called the decision to skip Perth a “gross injustice”.