Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is coming to Toronto—and that’s big news for the economy. The pop superstar announced six dates in Canada’s largest city in November 2024, after her previous schedule left off any Canadian stops. Here’s why that matters for more than your Instagram feed:

Don’t blame me (for the hole in your wallet): The Eras tour is big business. Swift is on track to bring in ticket sales of more than US$1 billion, more than US$13 million per night. Fans are shelling out an average of US$254 per ticket. And it doesn’t stop there—the average concertgoer spent a total of US$1,300 on tickets, outfits, merchandise, food and drink, and travel, according to a report by the research firm QuestionPro.

Look what you made me do (to your GDP): All that spending has had a significant impact on regional economies. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia highlighted the economic boost of the tour’s May stop in the city in a report last month. QuestionPro estimated the tour will generate US$5 billion in total economic impact—more than the GDP of 50 countries, it notes. Popular—and expensive—recent concert tours by Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and others have even been blamed for higher-than-expected inflation.

I can see you, Canada: The Bank of Canada said in July it expects inflation to stay around three per cent for the next year, gradually declining to two per cent in the middle of 2025. If Swift’s big announcement is causing the central bank to scramble to adjust those forecasts, it’s not saying—“We have no analysis on this topic,” said spokesperson Amélie Ferron-Craig in an email to The Logic. 

Viet Vu, an economist at the Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University, said he doesn’t expect the tour will have a significant impact on inflation, but the tourism industry will likely get a welcome boost. ”This could actually be a huge boon to those folks, to hotels, to restaurants, who have really struggled” since the pandemic, he said in an interview.

RBC economist Carrie Freestone said in an email that the economic effects will depend on how Swift fans manage their budgets. “Whether it actually ends up boosting GDP depends on whether Canadians who spend on Taylor Swift concerts offset that spending by pulling in their belt somewhere else.”