by Danielle Garrett of PlanIt Travel Designs for The Aha! Connection
A new travel trend emerged earlier this Spring called Tour Tourism. Beginning this March, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour propelled this concept to huge popularity. Rolling Stone magazine called it the “Taylor Tourism Effect” however, Taylor Swift can’t take full credit for starting this trend. Last year, U.S. fans traveled to Europe for Beyonce’s Renaissance tour (but only Taylor Swift made it national news, of course!). This concept is not brand new, as we all know people that have traveled to another city to see their favorite musician in the U.S. The difference is traveling to a European city because the cost of concert tickets are considerably less compared to the U.S. ticket market. Many people (including myself) were able to purchase a Taylor Swift concert ticket and an overseas flight ticket (and sometimes the hotel cost) for less than one concert ticket in the U.S. Plus the opportunity to experience a beautiful European city sweetened the deal!!
What has fueled this trend? The U.S. concert ticket market is out of control! In the U.S. we are charged much higher fees, but the biggest issue is the re-sale market in our country. Europe has strict regulations in place that puts a cap on marking up tickets over their face value.
I was all in and ready to jump on the Tour Tourism train! I grabbed my daughter, one of her BFF’s and her Mom and we joined what felt like a million Americans in Paris to see Taylor Swift for a long weekend this May! Our concert tickets were between $350-400 each (two of our four tickets were on the floor) and our flights were $800 each. Taylor Swift tickets for U.S. shows sell for close to $2,000 each (floor tickets range from $3,000-7,000 each)! How could I not go!!? 🙂
It was a wonderful and unique experience that has prompted me to look up my favorite artist’s future European tour schedule!! If your interest is also peaked, click HERE for a great resource where you can search music tours by dates, genre and more.
I’ve included a little snippet from our Taylor Swift concert (click here).
I am not a self-proclaimed Swiftie, but after seeing her in concert, I am a big fan and would highly recommend anyone seeing her in action on stage. It was the most entertaining show I’ve ever experienced…and Paris didn’t stink either!!! 🙂
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