In September of 2023, we published our monthly email (sign up in footer) that compared the economic impact of the 2023 NFL Draft vs. the two nights of Taylor Swift’s Eras concerts. Using estimates from a variety of national publications, it was intended to be a fun, non-scientific comparison that highlighted the economic power of sports and entertainment
Little did we know what was coming just weeks later (or did we?). When the romance between Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift became public, news outlets began reaching out to us and others in KC to understand the economic impact of this headline-catching power couple.
While it is impossible to accurately create a “Taylor-and-Travis-are-dating” economic index, we have taken a closer look at the impact of Ms. Swift’s concerts in KC, leveraging our partnership with VisitKC, our regional authority on tourism. Here’s their data:
Visit KC utilizes Destinations International’s Event Impact Calculator when estimating the impact expected for events taking place in Kansas City. Among its outputs, those of most significance include in-destination spending, tax generation, jobs supported, and personal income generated.
We always release the direct spending estimate when calculating the impact of events occurring in the KC market (highlighted below). The additional outputs are referenced on an as-needed basis – typically for high-profile events such as the Draft, World Cup, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, etc.
OVERVIEW OF CALCULATOR
- 300+ DMOs around the globe subscribe to the calculator;
- Draws on ten different data sources to provide an industry-wide standard;
- Models and platform have been developed by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company;
- Model is uniquely developed specific to each destination subscriber.
EVENT DETAILS
Event Name: Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour
Event Dates: July 7-8, 2023
Event Venue: Arrowhead Stadium
Total Concert Attendance: 134,000 (Chiefs)
EVENT ESTIMATES
Direct spending: $47.8 million (NFL Draft $108.8 million)
Direct spending is the sum of in-destination spending by attendees, meeting planners and organizers. This is the figure we cite when publicly quoting the impact estimate for an event.
Total impact (Direct + Indirect + Induced): $72.7 million (NFL Draft $164.3 million)
Total Impact is the sum of Direct, Induced and Indirect spending. Induced includes event-adjacent business-to-business sales. Indirect includes event-generated incomes spent in the local economy. This is a more of an all-encompassing figure that captures the multiplying effect of dollars spent as they flow through the local economy.
Jobs supported (Direct): 25,150 (NFL Draft 53,000)
Jobs supported does not imply these jobs would not exist apart from the event, only that the event supported these jobs over a specified period of time.
Annual FTEs (Direct): 420 (NFL Draft 1,100)
Annualized the employment figure to measure the fulltime equivalent employment supported by the event.
Personal income generated (Direct): $12.9 million (NFL Draft $33.9 million)
Includes all forms of income resulting from hosting of event.
TAX GENERATION ESTIMATES
Local taxes generated (Direct): $5.0 million (NFL Draft $11.2 million)
State taxes generated (Direct): $2.2 million (NFL Draft $4.8 million)
Federal taxes generated (Direct): $4.0 million (NFL Draft $9.5 million)
DATA SOURCES OF SIGNIFICANCE
Hotel occupancy and revenue data: STR/CoSTAR
Short-term rental occupancy and revenue data: AirDNA
Persons per room: Tourism Economics/Internal research
Attendee Demographics: Longwoods International/Internal research
Geographic reach of event; Out-of-town share; Overnight share; Percentage of overnight share arriving by air: Internal research
All data sources above were also heavily relied-upon when estimating the NFL Draft’s impact on the market. Additionally, we worked closely with the NFL – notably the Events and the Consumer Insights teams, respectively — on the content included in our attached post-event summation. This collaboration focused largely on the collection of data on-site during the event: OnePass app usage for point-of-origin insights; on-site surveying at Draft and Fan Fest over all three days for visitor profile; actual attendance by day for volume and flow-through; plus more.