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Virtually all of the hotel rooms in the nine-county Indianapolis area—about 33,000 rooms in total—now have reservations for the nights of Taylor Swift’s concerts in Lucas Oil Stadium on Nov. 1-3, a top tourism official told IBJ.
The inventory-consuming demand for hotel rooms is an indication of a surprising demographic statistic applying to attendees of the Indianapolis dates on Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour: About 80% of ticket holders for the local concerts will be from outside Indiana.
“This is a tourism driver like we have not seen in a while,” said Chris Gahl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Visit Indy, the agency in charge of promoting Indianapolis for conventions and other tourism.
In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast (see below), Gahl unpacked Visit Indy’s multilevel strategy for shaping their impressions of Indianapolis. The campaign incorporates social media, geofencing, Indianapolis International Airport, hotel managers, an army of volunteers, curated tours for corporate and celebrity VIPs, the Visit Indy suite at Lucas Oil Stadium and even outreach to Lyft and Uber drivers.
Visit Indy is expecting about 200,000 people to descend on downtown Indianapolis on the weekend of Nov. 1-3 either to attend the concerts or simply to celebrate the occasion, Gahl said.
About 65,000 tickets have been sold for each of the three concerts, amounting to about 195,000 tickets. That doesn’t necessarily mean the shows will bring 195,000 unique spectators, since some people will have tickets for more than one concert.
However, Visit Indy believes 87% of the ticket holders will be from outside the nine-county Indianapolis area, which presents a rare opportunity to make a lasting impression on far more than 100,000 people just getting to know the city.
Gahl shared several other key statistics about Indy’s stint as host to the Eras Tour.
— Short-term lodging bookings through Airbnb and Vrbo have surged 207% in the nine-county Indianapolis area as compared to Nov. 1-3 of 2023. Searches for Airbnb availability in the Indy area on Nov. 1-3 increased 7,000% compared to searches for the three dates last year.
— Many Indianapolis hotels are charging two to three times as much as they would normally charge for rooms on Nov. 1-3.
— Although it’s tough to forecast a specific figure, the economic impact of the Eras Tour in Indianapolis will be “in the healthy nine figures,” Gahl said.
— Visit Indy has recruited 75 people—including students in the hospitality programs at Butler University and Indiana University Indianapolis—to act as welcome emissaries and on-the-street concierges for visitors.
Gahl said that Visit Indy is tracking more than 50 Taylor Swift-themed events in Indianapolis outside of the concert. Arts reporter Dave Lindquist highlighted many of them in a story in the Oct. 4 print edition of IBJ.
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The three concerts will break the record for the highest attended concerts at Lucas Oil, but you’d think that another 5k-10k tickets could be added for each night considering the stage layout of the Eras tour.
If the window is open, the concerts will be able to be heard from outside. If the weather is good, this is something that VisitIndy should pitch to try to get more even more value out of the weekend for the City.
Note to self; don’t go downtown on Nov 1-3rd.
Downtown absorbs crowds like this on a regular basis, but the hustle and bustle isn’t for everyone.
Who should we blame for selling out all the hotel rooms for some concert? Sounds like some kind of money making scheme if you ask me.
Good for Indy. Hopefully downtown will be viewed as pleasant and people leave with a positive impression. More visitors means more income for the region.