taylor swift

Taylor Swift performs at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, October 27, 2024. It was the third and final night of The Eras Tour's sold-out weekend at the Superdome.

The concerts are over. The hordes of fans have gone home. And the buzz that surrounded Taylor Swift’s three-day Eras Tour stop in the Crescent City is dying down.

But the magic of the megastar’s visit to New Orleans — and the economic impact it had on the city’s hospitality industry — will live on for a long time.

Hotels were booked solid, restaurants were slammed, and local attractions were packed with an estimated 150,000 visitors who came from all over the country to see Swift perform in the Caesars Superdome. Together with nearly 50,000 or so local fans, the Swifties spent the weekend strolling downtown streets in sparkly attire, shooting selfies under balmy skies, and cheerfully pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy, according to early estimates of visitor spending.

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Fans take photos of each other making heart shapes with their hands outside the Caesar's Superdome for the Taylor Swift concert in New Orleans on Friday, October 25, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)

“It was phenomenal on all levels,” said Michael Valentino, who owns seven downtown hotels and a tour company. ?“It was a truly unbelievable event that impacted every one of our businesses.”

Coming three months ahead of the Super Bowl, which New Orleans is hosting for the first time in more than a decade, the Swift concert stop was also seen as a critical test of the city’s ability to pull off a major event without any problems with infrastructure, crime or logistics that can often make daily life in New Orleans a challenge.??

Leaders of the city's hospitality industry say the city passed with flying colors.

Walt Leger, III, president and CEO of New Orleans & Co., the city's tourism marketing group, said reports from hotels, restaurants and small businesses were unanimous in their praise of public safety officers, who kept the city safe and clean, and of the Swifties, who were "happy to be engaging."?

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Fans take photos of each other making heart shapes with their hands outside the Caesar's Superdome for the Taylor Swift concert in New Orleans on Friday, October 25, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)

"We played to our strength and delivered on all levels," Leger said. "It was an amazing experience."

Beyond that, though, the weekend provided a much-needed morale boost for the city’s collective psyche, serving as a reminder that New Orleans, at its best, knows how to lean into celebrations of music, families and joy-filled fun.?

“There was a beautiful, family friendly energy across the city,” said Jayson Seidman, CEO of the hospitality company Sandstone, whose three hotels and French Quarter restaurant The Fives?were packed. “New Orleans is often seen as an adult playground. This was an opportunity to show it off in a different light. It was civil. It was sweet. It was happy.”

Better than Super Bowl?

It’s hard to say exactly what the economic impact of Swift’s three-days Eras Tour was on the area, but early estimates are?impressive.

According to New Orleans & Co., 150,000 visitors traveled to New Orleans for the the Eras Tour, including more than 32,000 who flew out of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Sunday, making it the airport's busiest day ever.

According to the U.S. Travel Association, Swifties across the U.S., on average, spend more than $1,300 each on tickets, travel, hotel stays, merchandise and costumes, which puts the back-of-the-envelope cash infusion into the New Orleans economy at around?$195 million.

But that doesn't include the tens of thousands of locals who also attended one of the concerts and spent money on costumes and other bling, Swift merch, rideshares and whatever food and drink they bought while wandering around downtown and the French Quarter.

“It’s clear that it exceeds $200 million and that’s just direct spending,” Leger said.

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Fans walk from Champion's Square to the Caesar's Superdome for the Taylor Swift concert in New Orleans on Friday, October 25, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)

For hotels, which have struggled to return to pre-pandemic occupancy levels, it was one of the best weekends in memory, according to local hotel owners. The 26,000 hotel rooms in downtown and the French Quarter were 100% occupied Friday and Saturday and more than 80% occupied on Sunday, according to New Orleans & Co.?

“This wasn’t a run up to Super Bowl,” said Valentino. “This was Super Bowl times one and a half.”

'Wholesome and happy'

Hospitality leaders say it’s tricky to compare the Eras Tour to the Super Bowl or Mardi Gras because there's nothing else like the Swift phenomenon — a three-day, family-friendly concert headlined by a global superstar with a relatively affluent, predominantly female fan base. ?

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Taylor Swift performs on Night One of the Eras Tour in New Orleans.

“We love Mardi Gras but it’s exhausting for the hospitality industry,” said Ruby Slipper Owner Jennifer Weishaupt, whose six popular breakfast diners saw a 20% increase in business over the weekend compared to the average take. “People tend to overindulge at Mardi Gras and they’re not always nice to their wait staff.”

This past weekend was different, she said. Moms and daughters waited in the Ruby Slipper's lines and traded friendship bracelets with fellow customers, admiring and complimenting each others' fan garb.?

"My manager has been here 10 years and said he's never seen such a wonderful crowd," Weishaupt said.

Mardi Gras revelers, though larger in total number than the Swift crowds, come for free parades and parties, so are less likely to spend at local attractions, according to hospitality leaders. The Audubon Nature Institute, for instance, had 4,500 visitors at the zoo, aquarium and insectarium over Mardi Gras weekend early this year, spokesperson Melissa Lee said. During the Eras Tour, the attractions had more than 20,000 visitors, "which is very strong for us," Lee said.

Super Bowl crowds are unique in another way. They spend big and fill up hotels. But much of the money pumped into the city by the Super Bowl is from corporate sponsors, who rent hotel conference rooms and venues for private parties and invitation-only events.

“That’s great if you’re a big downtown hotel,” Leger said. “But it’s not as good for small businesses, who don’t feel the impact of a Super Bowl as much as they did from the Swift concert.”

When New Orleans last hosted the Super Bowl in 2013, the total estimated economic impact was $500 million, which Leger said will likely be similar to the spend in 2025.

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The statue of former Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen joins in the arm-lifting celebration of Taylor Swift fans Theresa Robertson and Grace Owens, both of Auburn, Alabama, as they take turns posing for selfies before entering the Caesar's Superdome for the Taylor Swift concert in New Orleans on Friday, October 25, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)

For local businesses though, the success of the Swift weekend is about more than the numbers. It was about a joy that permeated much of the city for a few days at a time when everybody needed a boost.

“It wasn’t just the quantity of visitors but the quality,” said Valentino. “They were wholesome. They were happy.”

Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com.

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