The end of an Era(s Tour): Taylor Swift’s final impact on hotel performance

Analysis by Audrey Kallman

Taylor Swift said, “so long, London,” and made her way back to North America for her final leg of the Eras Tour. 

The conclusion ended with 18 shows – split evenly between U.S. and Canadian markets.

STR has tracked the incredible performance hotels have exhibited when the Eras Tour had come to town over the last couple of years, and the final leg demonstrated equally tremendous results. With market occupancies exceeding 96% on some nights of the tour, and average daily rate (ADR) growing close to 300% on others, the data posted some serious results. Find out which markets Swift “enchanted” the most, and which ones have “bad blood” (if any).

Miami

Miami experienced the least drastic response to the presence of the Eras Tour during this final leg. Take “least drastic” with a grain of salt, because the market still grew hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) by over 80% for the weekend of 18-20 October. This was primarily driven by ADR growth, which was up 60% year over year (YoY), while occupancy grew only 13%. Room rates nearly doubled on Friday night in response to the concert, which boosted demand by 30%. Saturday night, however, held the highest room rates for the weekend, at a US$332 average for the entire Miami, FL, market. 

Occupancy actually declined Sunday night (-5.1%), attributed to the presence of the NASCAR Cup Series 400 last year. This meant rates grew “only” 21.4%, when usually we expect to see more tremendous growth on a Sunday night, given it usually is the weakest day of performance. However, rates still averaged US$267 for the night, and while that reflects the lowest average market rate of this entire leg, it still beat the daily national average by over US$100.

New Orleans

New Orleans posted an astounding performance the weekend of 25-27 October. The Swifties came in strong, pushing RevPAR up 226%, making New Orleans the leading U.S. market for this leg of the tour. On Saturday night, hotels in the market were more than 96% occupied, leaving room rates up almost 200% from last year, exceeding US$500. Overall, the weekend ended with 90% hotel occupancy and ADR averaging US$442.

Indianapolis

Indianapolis reaped the benefits of the Eras Tour, but only on the room rate side. Last year’s dates reflected the National FFA convention, which had 73k attendees, so it made sense there was a dip in occupancy YoY, particularly on Sunday night, which dropped over 17%. ADR increased over 106% over the course of the weekend, resulting in a 92% lift in RevPAR. Similar to New Orleans, rates grew the most on Saturday, at 120%. On Sunday, occupancy dropped 20 percentage points from Saturday night, resulting in a YoY decline of 17%, which ultimately pulled the overall weekend occupancy down 7%. Room rates averaged US$368 for the three nights of the tour, with Friday and Saturday yielding rates closer to US$400, while Sunday was closer to US$300. 

Toronto

Toronto hosted two consecutive weekends of the Eras Tour, both held Thursday - Saturday. Overall, the weekends posted ADR growth over 105%, resulting in a RevPAR increase of 115.5%. 

However, there was a clear winner amongst the two weekends. The second weekend (21-23 November) drove RevPAR gains upwards of 150%, which was fueled by strong ADR growth. Hotel room rates averaged US$357 for the second weekend, exceeding 100% YoY increases for each night of the weekend. 

The first weekend saw slightly lower occupancy levels, at 76%, however rates during this weekend last year were a little higher, and there wasn’t as much growth to be had during the weekend, leaving rates just shy of doubling.

Vancouver

Vancouver was “the 1” on this leg of the tour, host to the last three shows of the two-year stint. “Are you ready for it?” – the smallest market of the final leg of the tour, occupancy grew to nearly 87% for the weekend. Remarkably, rooms rates grew 260% to US$555 for the weekend. 

Friday led the rate game at US$599, which equaled a growth of almost 300%. Saturday rates were nearly as high but had enough occupancy gains to drive the highest RevPAR growth, at 402%. Sunday, the weakest of the days, still yielded a RevPAR increase of over 250%, thanks to ADR growth at nearly 200%, and an occupancy lift at roughly 18%. Ultimately, the weekend finished with RevPAR improvement of 343% - something out of Vancouver’s “wildest dreams”. 

Conclusion

149 shows across 5 continents and 21 countries. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was truly an economic disruptor, having contributed significant impact to the global economy, and particularly the hospitality sector. This prompts the thought, are these the years of the Experience Era? And if so, is this truly the “end of an era”, or just the beginning? Whose tour will be taking over next?