Taylor Swift set to boost London economy by £300 million after selling 640,000 tickets for sold out Wembley shows

Taylor Swift’s eight sold out shows at Wembley are predicted to bring a £300million boost to the London economy.

The hitmaker is currently in the UK as part of the European leg of her billion dollar Eras tour.

The singer, 34, is set to perform three dates in at the 90,000 capacity venue over the weekend before returning for five more nights from the 15-20th of August.

With a total of 640,000 tickets sold, Greater London Authority are expecting fans to spend an average of £471 per person,

Taylor has also taken over a giant car park at the stadium to create a merchandise stall which has been open since Wednesday, two days prior to the shows kicking off.

A second pop-up stall has also been set up in Hyde Park allowing even more fans to get their hands on some Eras merch.

And the items on sale aren’t cheap, with T-shirts priced at £40, hoodies for £75 and tote bags or £25.

Taylor’s run in the capital is the most nights played at Wembley stadium by a female solo artist in a single tour.

To celebrate Taylor’s visit to the iconic stadium, a giant mural pf the singer’s face has been painted across the steps by artist Frank Styles.

Meanwhile a second mural of the singer by MurWalls and Humour Street Art has been painted on a wall by the venue.

Transport For London has also reimagined the Tube map ahead of the singer’s arrival, with each line renamed after one of the star’s albums and the stops named after her songs.

Elsewhere, Friday also sees the launch of a Taylor trail across the capital to celebrate the locations mentioned in her lyrics.

Her song London Boy makes references to Brixton, Soho, Camden and Shoreditch to name a few, while one of her latest songs The Black Dog is based on a pub in Vauxhall.

Fans will be able to access the trail through a QR code at participating venues and on the Visit London website which will provide information on the various Taylor themed events across the city including brunches, singalongs and quizzes.

Sharing a snap of himself at the Taylor themed Wembley steps, Sadiq Khan even confirmed himself as a Swiftie as he took to Instagram to welcome the singer.

Playing on one of the singer’s hits Style, the Mayor Of London wrote: ‘London’s music scene never goes out of style.

‘As Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour opens tomorrow, our city is giving her and her fans a big London welcome.

‘Almost 700,000 are expected to attend the London gigs and are set to boost the capital’s economy by £300m.’

In total the tour is estimated to be worth up to £1 billion to the UK economy after it became the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark last year according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts.

Taylor began the UK leg of the tour with three nights in Edinburgh at the beginning of the month, giving the Scottish economy a boost of up to £200million.

Over the course of the weekend, fans were expected to spend an average of £848 as they forked out on hotels, restaurants, taxis and other expenses.

Many have spent hundreds of pounds on accommodation, with some hotels charging as much as £1,600 a night.

Recent data from Barclays revealed in a ‘Swiftonomics’ report that fans of the superstar were set to inject around £185million into Scotland’s economy.

The bank reckoned that fans would be spending an average of £121 on accommodation, £111 on travel and £56 on food.

Global travel platform Hellotickets estimated the concerts will attract up to 100,000 extra visitors to the city.

Tourist spend alone could reach up to £76.5million, including as much as £15million in restaurants and cafes and £45million on hotels, some of which could see their revenue increase by up to 300 per cent.

It said: ‘These figures highlight how a single event can inject tens of millions of pounds into the local economy, benefiting businesses, workers and public services.’