This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. Jim Wang scored tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Pittsburgh, which he paid $800 for. And since Swift’s concert at Acrisure Stadium was about a four-hour drive from his home in Fulton, Maryland, he’d need overnight accommodations, too.
Wang is just one of a growing group of people willing to travel to see a concert. TodayTix Group, an online ticketing platform for theatrical and cultural events, conducted an online survey in February 2023 of more than 4,000 Americans who had attended at least one live event over the past 12 months. 38% of respondents were willing to travel within their state, as Wang did. And 17% were willing to travel out of state. When shows like The Eras Tour come to town, along with them comes a sudden — yet temporary — influx of travelers, and hotel rooms often sell out because of it. In Wang’s case, all the hotels in Pittsburgh were sold out, and he was lucky to find an Airbnb
ABNB,
+2.99%
about a mile and a half away. The story of concerts selling out hotel rooms is not unique. On the nights Swift performed in Cincinnati this summer, Red Roof occupancy was 86% across the hotel chain’s eight nearest properties, according to data provided to NerdWallet by Red Roof. Four of the hotel properties sold out entirely that weekend, which Red Roof said is incredibly rare, adding that occupancy rates during the Friday and Saturday she performed were 28% higher than those nights in 2022. Related: Taylor Swift is propping up the hotel industry, analysts say, amid questions about revenge-travel fluctuations Meanwhile, downtown Nashville hotels were sold out during the three nights of Swift’s concert in May, according to Hotels.com data. And it’s not just Swift. The Red Roof outpost in Arlington, Texas, saw 30% higher occupancy rates when Metallica performed in August 2023 versus the same weeknight …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source