Sweden’s ‘Beyonce Blip’ Shows Potential in Music Tourism

Beyoncé’s career is filled with chart-topping albums, momentous concerts and her marriage to another musical trailblazer, Jay-Z. But recently, the “Cuff It” singer’s most unusual contribution to society might be her impact on Sweden’s stubbornly high inflation rate.

When Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour launched with two dates at Stockholm’s 46,000-capacity Friend Arena in May, it contributed about 0.2 percentage points to Sweden’s inflation rate for the month. “It’s quite astonishing for a single event,” Michael Grahn, chief economist for Sweden with Danske Bank, told the Financial Times. Termed the “Beyoncé blip” by Grahn, the small impact to Sweden’s overall appreciation in prices was caused by the singer’s fans’ buying up hotel rooms and spending money in restaurants.

The combination of relatively cheap tickets and a strong U.S. dollar — 9.3% more valuable to the Swedish kroner compared to the prior-year period — made Sweden an attractive alternative for Beyoncé fans priced out of concerts closer to home. That helped cause Sweden’s inflation rate — a staggering 9.7% compared to just 4.0% in the U.S. — to land half of a percentage point higher than expectations.

An influx of Americans is hardly the sole reason prices were stubbornly high in Sweden last month. As Forbes pointed out, Sweden’s inflation rate was plenty high before Beyoncé’s Stockholm concert, and one musician could only have a small impact relative to other factors such as food and non-alcoholic beverages (+14.8%) and furnishings and household goods (+10.4%).

Still, it says a lot about ticket prices — and U.S. consumers’ stomach for them — that Stockholm was a viable alternative for some Americans. The Beyoncé blip isn’t the first we’ve heard about her fans’ reaction to high prices for in-demand tickets. Buzzfeed wrote an article back in February about some sticker-shocked fans’ decision to travel great distances to save money. One Las Vegas-based Beyoncé fan told the outlet she couldn’t get into a Ticketmaster presale and ended up spending $300 on a Stockholm show instead. Another American fan said she purchased a floor seat in Stockholm for just $95.

Post-pandemic, artists are less shy about charging their fans higher prices for primary tickets. Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift are among the superstar artists who have elevated tickets’ face value, rather than let ticket scalpers capture the premium on the secondary market. Although Springsteen had kept prices relatively low throughout his career, tickets for the best seats on his 2023 tour, which went on sale last summer, cost upwards of $5,000. Tickets for U.S. dates for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour typically cost $350 for decent seats, Billboard reported in May. There’s a large variation by city, too. Currently, the cheapest tickets available on SeatGeek for her tour range from $57 in Louisville, Ky., to $90 in Minneapolis, to $145 in Pittsburgh. Larger markets are far more expensive: Ticket prices start at $270 in East Rutherford, N.J., outside of New York City; and $282 in Philadelphia.

Every consumer has a breaking point, however, and people will take more affordable options when given the chance. Ticket buyers facing sky-high prices need only a passport and time off work to see a superstar at — compared to the United States — bargain prices. A person with frequent flier miles and hotel points to burn can easily get a vacation and a concert in a historic European city cheaper than a concert alone at home.

This presents an opportunity. Why not music tourism when medical tourism is a long-standing tradition?

Health care might be the only aspect of the U.S. economy with a lower public sentiment than concert tickets. Medical tourism is an established industry because healthcare costs are notoriously steep in this country. For patients who don’t mind travel and trust the level of care provided in other countries, elective surgeries can be obtained far more affordably outside the United States, in countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Thailand. South African companies sell package vacations that include plastic surgery and a safari. As long as you need the procedure, you might as well enjoy yourself!

Live music companies are already looking to capture a share of music fans’ travel budgets. As my colleague Dave Brooks reported this week, the concert business has put a renewed focus on destination events. Not content with capturing fans’ spending for tickets and concessions, promoters are increasingly interested in grabbing a share of the hotel and hospitality spending when fans travel for concerts and festivals. To that point, in April Live Nation announced a new travel and hospitality firm, Vibee, which offers “curated music experiences in the most sought-after destinations in the world,” according to its website.

Increasingly, going to concerts is more like taking a vacation. A Live Nation study found that fans attending Lollapalooza in Chicago last year spent about $49 million on hotels and over $80 million on food and beverages. Indeed, multi-day festivals, with their VIP packages and high-priced perks, have more in common with an overseas trip than a weeknight concert at a nearby amphitheater. Over time, if enterprising companies can create the right products and services, music tourism could be more than a financial blip, and — as these companies see it — Beyoncé fans might wind up paying you twice.