Miley Cyrus may have been the one to hop off the plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan, but Taylor Swift is inspiring a notable spike in air travel to Europe this Memorial Day weekend and beyond with her overseas Eras Tour stops.
Thanks in part to the more numerous stops and more stringent ticket resale laws in Europe, many Americans are heading abroad to catch the latest iteration of Swift’s Eras Tour, which boyfriend Travis Kelce (an unbiased source to be sure) heartily endorsed last week after taking in the final night of her Paris stopover.
“I had a blast at Tay’s show,” he said on his podcast, New Heights. “Her new rendition of the Eras Tour, I suggest everyone go see it. It has her new Tortured Poets Department, a few songs, a handful of those songs in the new show, which means there’s a new segment and new lights and new, like, dancing and new everything to the fucking show, so. I suggest everybody get out there and see it, it was absolutely unbelievable, I enjoyed every bit of it.”
According to a press release of data from United Airlines, this is their busiest-ever Memorial Day weekend, with tickets from the U.S. to Lisbon and Madrid around Swift’s shows in the cities about 25 percent more in demand this year than the same time in 2023. The flight numbers look to be soaring for the rest of the summer too: Flights are about 45 percent more in demand from the U.S. to Milan when Swift heads there in July, and 40 percent more passengers heading to for Munich later that month compared to last year.
Last summer, the Eras Tour’s first U.S. leg generated more than $5 billion in consumer spending, by expert estimates, and her European dates seem poised to carry the spending trend forward, perhaps even exceeding it thanks to fans making a vacation out of the concert, as well as second-time audience members eager to take in Swift’s additions since the release of The Tortured Poets Department in April.