A Swift effect on the economy?

Dear Reader: Taylor Swift’s mammoth 149-date Eras Tour will wind down in Canada, with about 240,000 fans expected at the Toronto shows at the Rogers Centre on November 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23. And back to December (7, 8, 9), another 160,000 will pack BC Place in Vancouver.

Out-of-towners have booked up available accommodations. Local restaurants and bars and transportation providers are also sure to benefit from the expected economic boost.

Major events can have a positive effect on the economy. In the first quarter of 2010, spending by international visitors was up 5.9% from the previous quarter, the largest quarterly increase in nine years. The Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games held in Vancouver contributed to this increase.

We’re always in our statistical era here at Statistics Canada, so let’s take a data snapshot of local economies that could get a bit of a gold rush from the upcoming concerts… ready for it?

Could concert expenditures use a Swift boost to set a new high?

Canadians certainly enjoy live entertainment, and the data shows it. In the second quarter of 2024, Canadian households spent $867 million (seasonally adjusted) on other cultural services, an expenditure-based gross domestic product (GDP) contribution category that includes live performances at concert and musical halls.

That figure remains short of the $890 million spent in the fourth quarter of 2019, the last full quarter before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the highest quarterly expenditure on record since we started tracking the current data series in 1981.

In addition to the nearly $765.0 million contributed to the GDP in the second quarter, the live performance economic subdomain (which includes festivals and celebrations, and performing arts) also accounted for nearly 73,000 jobs.

All you had to do was stay, and eat

So, we know that live events are popular in Canada. Are Toronto and Vancouver ready to welcome all those Swifties?

In June 2024, there were 1,394 business locations in the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA) and 1,306 in the Vancouver CMA in the traveller accommodation industry group. The Toronto CMA also had 21,450 food services and drinking places, while there were 9,076 in the Vancouver CMA.

Recent StatCan analysis using AirDNA data estimated that the Toronto CMA had around 36,000 short-term rental units (such as Airbnb and Vrbo) in 2021, while the Vancouver CMA had close to 19,000.

Accommodation and food services businesses expecting an increase in demand, and rising inflation as an obstacle

The broader accommodation and food services sector, which includes traveller accommodation and all types of food services and drinking places, employed 434,200 people in Ontario and 185,900 in British Columbia in October.

Nearly 3 in 10 (29.4%) of Ontario businesses in this sector and 1 in 10 (9.5%) of those in British Columbia expected an increase in demand for their goods and services over the next three months, when surveyed in the third quarter of 2024.

Furthermore, around three-quarters of businesses in the sector in Ontario (73.0%) and British Columbia (76.9%) said that rising inflation would be an obstacle—so any boost in revenue would be helpful.

Getting to the shows

Based on data from the Labour Force Survey Supplement, in the 12-month period ending in December 2023, 135,000 Canadians aged 16 to 69 provided ride or taxi services (e.g., personal transport), and half of them (49.9%) lived in the CMAs of Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver.

In November 2023, riders took nearly 35.8 million trips on Toronto Transit Commission buses, streetcars and subways, as well as nearly 5.4 million trips on GO trains and buses (operated by Metrolinx), which serve the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. There were over 18.1 million passenger trips taken in December 2023 on TransLink buses and the SkyTrain, serving Vancouver and surrounding areas.

Taking a getaway car to the shows? Check out our historical data captured by cameras in the Traffic Flow Dashboard. For example, the intersection of York Street and Bremner Boulevard near the Rogers Centre saw over 1,000 vehicles on three different days last November, up slightly from the average daily count of 750 vehicles. Give yourself plenty of time!

Trips, recreation and entertainment expenditures set new highs for a fourth quarter

Tourism activity in Canada generally slows in the fall and winter, after peaking in summer. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Canadian residents took 18.4 million trips for holiday, leisure or recreation within Canada, a high for any fourth quarter on record and up from the previous high set a year earlier (17.5 million).

We track data by province of destination for non-resident visitors, who visited Ontario 2.7 million times in the fourth quarter of 2023 and spent $206.7 million on recreation and entertainment—both high marks for a fourth quarter.

British Columbia welcomed 1.5 million non-resident visitors in the fourth quarter of 2023, equalling the high originally set in the fourth quarter of 2019. The $143.7 million in recreation and entertainment expenditures in the fourth quarter of 2023 set a new record for a fourth quarter.