Taylor Swift’s Wembley concerts generate £300m for London, MP proposes top city honour
Taylor Swift concluded the European segment of her record-breaking Eras Tour with a final performance at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday night.
The capital has reportedly experienced an uptick in consumer spending, foot traffic, and tube usage during Swift’s time in London, with one MP hailing her tour as a “lifeline” for the UK economy.
Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson and MP for Richmond Park, has advocated for Swift to be awarded the Freedom of the City of London, noting that the Eras Tour has “provided hours of joy to the thousands of fans attending the shows”.
“But the real legacy of Taylor Swift’s tour will be the lifeline it provides to our economy, so it is only right that she be recognised with London’s highest honour,” stated Olney.
Chris Hayward, the Corporation’s policy chair, expressed support for the idea, commenting, “Taylor Swift’s hugely successful Eras Tour concerts at Wembley Stadium in June and August have brought together hundreds of thousands of devoted fans and boosted the capital’s economy.”
“If Taylor Swift were to be nominated to receive the Freedom and was happy to attend the ceremony, we have no doubt that she would have the best day in the City of London, exploring all of the cultural and historical highlights that we have here in the Square Mile.”
(Image: Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
How has London benefited?
The London assembly has estimated that the economic impact of the tour on London alone will be £300m, with an additional £1bn boost for the UK economy as a whole.
In June, Taylor Swift’s concerts took Wembley Park Tube station past 150,000 entries and exits in a day for the first time since the pandemic, according to Transport for London data, as reported by City AM.
Laura Citron, CEO at VisitLondon, commented: “Music is a huge tourism driver for London and this summer has been absolutely massive.”
“Taylor Swift’s record-breaking London shows have seen hotel searches up as much as four times higher than 2023 as Swifties entered the capital,” she added.
Footfall in London increased by 3.9 per cent in the centre and 3.8 per cent in the outer boroughs during Swift’s August visit, despite cooler weather than the previous weekend.
Footfall in London’s central office areas rose by 18 per cent week on week on the Sunday, and nearly 17 per cent on the Saturday.
Jenni Matthews, head of marketing at MRI Software, observed: “What’s interesting to see is that the office locations within the city benefited the most, with a rise of almost a fifth recorded year over year on Sunday.”
“[This] suggests those visiting the city for Taylor Swift’s concert are likely to have explored cost-effective accommodation options away from the venue or extended their stay following the concert to explore different parts of the city,” he added.
Deann Evans, EMEA managing director of Shopify, has hailed Taylor Swift as a “major economic force”, stating that the singer “has a huge impact on commerce”. Back in July, industry experts suggested that Swift’s tour had an inflation-stalling effect on UK services by driving up hotel prices.
Evans further commented: “The ‘Taylor Swift Effect’ is very real and can launch a business to new levels of popularity overnight, as well as propping up the economy of wherever her tour stops… her influence exists in a different stratosphere than most celebrities,” Earlier this year, UK retailer Little Lies experienced a staggering 17,000 per cent increase in sales compared to the same day in 2023, following Swift’s appearance in a green velvet dress from their collection.