How Tracking Taylor Swift’s World Tour and other large-scale events can help the success of your Global business immersion.
Taylor Swift is not just a pop icon. She is also a global phenomenon. Her world tours attract thousands of fans; her concerts are always sold out. But did you know that following her tour can impact your global business immersion plans? Let’s explore how tracking Taylor Swift’s world tour can help you plan your global immersion program and avoid potential roadblocks that may arise due to her concerts.
Tracking Taylor Swift’s world tour can give you valuable insights into global travel and potential hotel availability issues in certain cities of interest for your global programs.
As Taylor visits different cities, “swifties” follow, and the demand for hotels increases, which causes a price spike. Therefore, if your global immersion program includes cities where she has a sold-out concert, we might need to reconsider the dates or be prepared to pay a premium for accommodations.
Another critical factor to consider when tracking Taylor Swift’s tour is the location of her concerts.
Her last tour caused hotel booking prices in the United States to skyrocket by an astonishing 50%!
Industry data showed an interesting trend: hotel room rates soar by 50.28% (averaging $99 more) on nights when an Eras Tour show occurs. Some days, the following week would be 50% less on average, so considering these events is key when planning a business school program, especially nowadays that schools face tighter budget limitations.
Sometimes, her concerts may be held in small cities like Singapore for International tours. The impact of her concerts in small cities can be significant as they attract many fans, and frequently, they are regional concerts where fans from nearby countries travel to see her. As a result, hotel availability may be scarce, and prices may be inflated. Our team is well aware of the swifties phenomenon, with her name being one of the trending topics recently in our internal Slack communications!
And Taylor Swift is not the only big name on tour. Many high-profile artists are touring in 2024. We bet you didn’t think staying on top of music trends would be part of the job, but here we are, tracking tour dates for Taylor, Coldplay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and many more artists to monitor hotel availability and prices!
Danielle E. Ishizawa
These mega-events can significantly impact hotel prices as soon as dates are announced. These events cause prices to skyrocket on the actual dates, and sometimes, as we’ve seen when talking to our hotel partners, these can affect prices for the entire month.
Corporate travelers typically plan around main concert dates to secure better deals.
Academic travelers can also adopt this strategy to save money.
Here’s a pro tip: Plan your trip before the event dates to save even more. This is often the best option as concertgoers extend their stay in the country to enjoy a holiday rather than arriving early.
Let’s see expert insights on optimizing your program’s logistics and reducing costs on hotel stays from one of our hotel group partners.
Joaquin Rodriguez Soubiran
Key Account Manager
Our local Hotels consider the events and can radically modify rates for dates for events that can leave a city without an available room!
For events that repeat year after year, the rates will be higher, even if we book well in advance. This case is usually the simplest to track because it happens every year. Let’s say your program wants to travel to New York on the dates as the US open. I suggest avoiding scheduling any event unrelated to tennis in the last days of August and the first days of September!
But other cases are one-time events! It could be a mega concert or an event like the G20 summit. This summit changes its venue every year and is an event that, due to demand and security requirements, completely modifies the availability of hotels during the weeks leading up to, during, and after the event.
We suggest blocking dates far in advance and avoiding events that generate hotel buyouts so the rates are more competitive.
You can stay ahead of hotel availability and pricing by proactively planning your trip with anticipation and confirming details early, especially the hotel selection, which is one of the highest costs within the program. Keeping an eye on the big names touring during your program travel dates is critical, as well as the flexibility to move things to ensure the budget stays on track.
Ignacio Schnitzler
Our Logistics Team are silent heroes, working side by side with our Program Managers to ensure a smooth trip planning and execution. They are on top of contingencies that may arise during a program execution. Especially after the pandemic, large-scale events have been providing an extra challenge for our team to anticipate and avoid additional challenges. We work closely with our local partners to define the best plan, and we assist universities to plan with the right information well ahead of time.
“Deadlines are crucial for all students, but they become even more critical when special events occur in the city. Booking extra nights or adding guests may not be possible once the deadline has passed, causing potential disappointments. To avoid such issues, we kindly remind all trip leaders and students to stay aware of the deadlines for their trip planning.”
Jessica Sass
Hotels play a significant role in our land package budget, so it’s crucial to have effective strategies to save money and enhance the experience in every city. That’s why our team, Austral Travel Services (ATS), is solely dedicated to this essential aspect of vetting, relationship building, contract negotiations, and everything related to hotels and flight bookings. With our ATS team, we ensure that your accommodations and travel arrangements are optimized and exceed your expectations.
Keep an eye on the swifties phenomenon and tour schedule of big names in the music industry, and become aware of sporting events such as Formula 1, tennis opens, or others that might cause big crowds in the destination and diminish hotel availability to have a smooth and stress-free program budgeting and planning process!
