Taylor Swift’s U.S. fans reeling from sticker shock while looking for “Eras Tour” tickets could pay a lot less to see her in Europe, even after including air fare and a hotel.
According to an itinerary calculated by CNN, traveling to Sweden from New York to see Swift would cost about $1,300. That includes $300 for a concert ticket, $700 for a roundtrip flight, and $300 for a night at a four-star hotel.
Of course, an American tourist is unlikely to stay in Sweden for just one night then fly back to the U.S. the next day. And the cost of food, drinks and souvenirs would also add to the tab.
But that compares to ticket prices of $2,000-$8,500 for Swift’s upcoming shows in Miami, New Orleans and Indianapolis, according to prices on StubHub cited by CNN.
Many Swifties in the U.S. have already done the math. In fact, Swift’s concerts this month in Paris, where the European leg of the Eras Tour began, drew five times as many Americans as bookings for the Paris Olympics this summer.
The upside-down economics of traveling abroad to get a better deal on a concert is due in part to the strong U.S. dollar, which has helped fuel a wave of American tourism abroad.
That’s because the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes and higher-for-longer stance have boosted the greenback against top global currencies, which have slumped as other central banks are expected to start cutting rates soon. The upshot is that the dollar goes a longer way abroad, making overseas vacations less expensive for Americans.
In addition, several European countries and the European Union have limits on mark-ups from ticket resellers, CNN noted, with prices in Portugal, Spain and Germany for Swift’s Eras Tour coming in around $300-$400.
Meanwhile, the high prices for Swift tickets in the U.S. have draw such outrage that a “Taylor Swift bill” was signed into law in Minnesota to protect online ticket buyers from hidden fees and dodgy resellers. The Justice Department is also reportedly preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, as the industry’s overall practices come under greater scrutiny.
At the same time, Swift’s surprise release last month of a double album has added to the hype around her tour, which has already propelled Swift to a net worth of $1.1 billion, putting her on the Forbes list of billionaires for the first time