When Taylor Swift hits town: Megastar-driven effects on hotel performance

Abstract

This article examines the economic returns on the hotel industry generated by music concerts featuring megastars, focusing on Taylor Swift. Drawing upon microeconomic theory, we posit that such impact varies across hotel categories depending on their natural occupancy rates and demand elasticity. We exploit the staggered rollout of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour 2023 across U.S. cities to analyze their impact on hotel key performance indicators. Employing a dynamic difference-in-differences research design with daily panel data from 30 markets over 2022–2023, we find that Taylor Swift’s concerts boost revenue by about 45% per room sold during concert dates, with gains increasing alongside hotel quality. This performance increase is significantly higher than that of other well-known artists and higher during weekends.

Keywords

difference-in-differences megastar events natural occupancy rate Taylor Swift hotel performance

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