SEATTLE — The stage is being set at Lumen Field as Taylor Swift prepares to play two nights of The Eras Tour in Seattle.
Some local tourism industries are expecting a boost, much like the one economists say similarly-sized Denver recently saw during her stops there last week.
The numbers are still being crunched on the full economic impact of Swift's visit to Denver, with some estimates astonishingly high and others more conservative. Kishore Kulkarni, Ph.D., a distinguished professor in the Department of Economics at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, believes the impact runs around $35-40 million per night of her tour.
"Nothing compares to what we got with Taylor Swift. She is clearly the biggest ever in the history of the U.S. She has broken all kinds of records, she clearly is now the most popular entertainer, bar none," Kulkarni said.
Kulkarni says there were some costs to the influx of concertgoers, including traffic and a need to provide emergency services -- but his analysis shows benefits outweighed costs.
"All of them, hotels, restaurants, even the Uber drivers, cab drivers, those who wanted to give Airbnb and rent out their house or apartment, they got like, $600-700 just one night," Kulkarni said. "To put it mildly, this town has never seen anything like this before."
Vladimir Dashkeev, PhD, an assistant professor of economics at Seattle University, says there are obvious ripple effects to concert nights -- and additional impacts some people may not realize. Along with hotel rooms, dining and transit services -- industries that are recovering as foot traffic returns to Seattle following the pandemic -- Dashkeev says there will be positive impacts thanks to tax revenue and the effects of more eyes on the city.
"The responsibility of the city and of course the organizers is to make sure that this experience is gonna be very smooth so there will be a good reputation that's going to be spread in the performance community," Dashkeev said.
He says people from out of town visiting could also gain positive impressions of Seattle and want to return for future trips or even permanently.