Taylor Swift concerts bring record tourism and hotel demand to Indianapolis
A look at Taylor Swift’s previous visits to Indianapolis
These images show Taylor Swift’s performances in Indianapolis from 2007 to 2018. Swift will perform at Lucas Oil Stadium in November 2024.
Wochit
Four months before the final concerts of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, short-term rentals and hotel rooms for her Indianapolis stop in early November are nearly sold out, as out-of-town fans make up the majority of ticket holders..
Amid a potentially record-breaking year for the city’s tourism, Indianapolis hotels and short-term rentals have been in extreme demand year-round due to major one-off events like the NBA All-Star Game in February, the total solar eclipse in April and the Olympic swimming qualifying events in June.
But no event in 2024 will bring as many visitors to Indy as the hundreds of thousands of Swifties who will flock to the city in November for three nights of sold-out shows at Lucas Oil Stadium.
According to Chris Gahl, executive vice president of Visit Indy, hotel rooms across the city are virtually sold out for this weekend at prices three times higher than in 2023.
“We know that 87% of those who get a ticket to concerts at Lucas Oil Stadium come from outside the (metropolitan area), another strong tourism indicator,” Gahl said.
Bookings for short-term rentals increased by 207% compared to the same period last year, Gahl said.
According to an Airbnb report on the impact of Swift’s concerts, Circle City saw a 7,000% increase in searches for short-term Airbnb accommodations during the first weekend of November compared to the previous year. By comparison, Airbnb saw a 2,000% increase in Indianapolis during the eclipse.
Search spikes give a sense of how many people are considering a trip to a city during a given time period. Airbnb doesn’t track booking or occupancy rates, as supply may increase as dates get closer. Additionally, most short-term rentals can only be canceled a few days before the stay.
How it happened: Indianapolis secures Taylor Swift’s second Eras swing in 2024
The statistics show the power of Swift’s “passion tourism,” which leads fans to travel long distances to see their favorite artist. Thousands of Americans have traveled to Europe to see Swift’s performance, where tickets tend to be cheaper and easier to get, said Haven Thorn, a spokesperson for Airbnb.
“These are people who are more interested in the ‘what’ than the ‘where,’ and they’re traveling for Taylor Swift,” Thorn said. “And Americans made up more than a third of all Airbnb bookings in Europe during her tour.”
All three of Swift’s shows in Indianapolis at the Lucas Oil Theater, which seats nearly 70,000 people, sold out almost immediately. That means over 200,000 fans will attend Swift’s final concert in the United States over the course of the weekend.
The search increase in Indianapolis is 14 times higher than that for rental properties in Miami, where searches increased 500 percent during Swift’s performance weekend in October, and twice the increase for the final dates in 2024 in Vancouver.
Hotel rooms cost over $500 per night during Swift concert weekend
The rush of visitors booking overnight stays for the concerts has thrown even the Swifties’ most carefully planned trips into disarray.
Gracie Smith saw Taylor Swift live last year and the 25-year-old from Atlanta knew she had to see Swift again when she announced more US stops for late 2024.
After convincing her sister, cousin and aunt to accompany her to Indianapolis, Smith looked for hotels close enough to the stadium to walk there, since the group wouldn’t have a car over the weekend, and eventually settled on a room at the downtown Sheraton. They booked it for $457 a night, more than Smith’s original budget.
In January, the group’s room was spontaneously cancelled and a review of the bank statements revealed that no attempt had ever been made to charge for the room.
In a hurry, Smith and her relatives called the hotel every day for a month to find an explanation. Finally, Marriott offered them a room at another Marriott hotel, the Courtyard Marriott near Victory Field.
Her new room cost about $120 more per night, making her hotel nearly $600 per night. Smith said she has seen firsthand how prices for Swift performances have skyrocketed since her last tour in 2018, when Smith traveled to Dallas for a concert.
“We thought it was expensive in 2018, but now we look back and think, ‘Damn, we really should have taken advantage of that,'” she said.
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How much would it cost to attend a Taylor Swift concert?
Fans from other cities trying to secure last-minute tickets and travel will face limited options and high prices for accommodation, although some spots are still available.
On Tuesday, Airbnb search results showed the cheapest price for a two-day stay this November weekend: $188 for a private room in a residence and more than $400 for an entire unit in or near Indianapolis.
Meanwhile, the cheapest hotel room for two people costs more than $500 a night after fees, according to a search conducted on Expedia on Tuesday.
Currently, the cheapest concert tickets on ticket resale sites cost at least $2,000 each.
Alysa Guffey covers retail growth and development and the economy for IndyStar. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X: @AlysaGuffeyNews
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