Taylor Swift fans have already booked out hotels near several of the venues for the UK leg of the Eras tour next summer.
The budget hotel chain Travelodge said all of its hotels in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff were sold out for the days around the concerts in June 2024. A number of its hotels near Wembley Stadium – where Swift will perform on six nights in June and August – were also sold out on those dates.
“We have seen very strong demand from all corners of the UK for our hotels that are close to the venues where Taylor Swift is playing next year,” Travelodge said on Thursday as it reported that this year’s Beyoncé and Harry Styles concerts had helped it achieve “record-breaking [financial] results” in the six months to the end of June.
“Locations such as Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff are literally sold out. Our London hotels close to Wembley are literally sold out. As tickets for the Eras tour are like gold dust, Taylor Swift fans are certainly willing to travel miles across the UK to attend what is expected to be the highest grossing concert in history.”
Swift’s Eras tour is projected to bring in $2.2bn in North American ticket sales alone, according to industry analysts quoted by Time magazine. It would give the Shake It Off singer the title of the most-profitable tour ever, surpassing the $939m made by Elton John on his The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.
Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of UK Hospitality, said domestic tourism had been a bright spot for the industry after three challenging years, with the Swift concert expected to provide a big boost.
“The unprecedented demand for tickets to Taylor Swift’s UK tour will certainly translate into increased demand for hotels, as well as driving more visits to pubs, bars and restaurants in cities when the tour comes to town. The levels of interest in her tour shows just how important our music and nightlife scene is to the UK tourism and hospitality industry,” she said.
Beyoncé opening her Renaissance world tour with a concert in Stockholm in May was said to have led to a surprise jump in inflation in Sweden. Michael Grahn, chief economist for Sweden at Danske Bank, said: “Beyoncé’s start of her world tour in Sweden seems to have coloured May inflation, how much is uncertain.”
He said that her much-hyped concert in May “probably” accounted for 0.2 of the 0.3 percentage points added to inflation by hotels and restaurant prices.
Tens of thousands of fans flocked to Stockholm in the middle of May for the two Beyoncé concerts that opened her first solo tour in seven years. Estimates put the crowd at each concert at 46,000, with some forced to stay outside the capital as hotels filled up.
Travelodge, which operates more than 46,000 rooms in 598 hotels across the UK, said its hotels were sold out in most of London during Beyoncé’s five performances at Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
The hotel chain was criticised for moving homeless families out of its Enfield hotel near the stadium to accommodate Beyoncé fans who had booked up rooms long in advance. The Guardian reported that about 30 families would be removed from the Travelodge between 29 May and 4 June.
The company on Thursday reported a 48% increase in adjusted profits to £104.5m in the six months to 30 June compared with the first six months of 2022. Revenue was up 22% to £479m.
Revenue per available room – a key performance measure for hotel firms – increased 21% to £54.92. The Six Nations rugby matches, the Grand National and the London Marathon were also big drivers of sales, the company said.
Jo Boydell, Travelodge’s chief executive, said: “Leisure guests used Travelodge as a base to enjoy friends and family get-togethers, and sports and music events including the Six Nations rugby, the Grand National, and Eurovision.
“As we look ahead, we see significant opportunities for further growth and have identified more than 300 sites for new Travelodge hotels across the UK, as well as opportunities to grow our operation in Spain.”
