(Lyon) “If it wasn’t for Taylor”, they would probably never have come to Lyon: Taylor Swift’s concerts attract unexpected tourists to the city, where hotels and businesses rejoice at this good deal.
Posted at 7:28 a.m.
Manon BILLING
France Media Agency
More than 100,000 people will attend the performance of the American megastar, who will perform on June 2 and 3 in Lyon as part of his Eras Tour. As elsewhere, tickets were snapped up in no time.
A month before the event, social networks are teeming with exchanges between his fans, the “Swifties”, who are preparing the trip from the United States, Canada, Costa Rica or Nicaragua, and readily admit to having seized the first ticket available.
“You could say that I live his words: “I have counted the days, I have counted the kilometers to see you there”. 10,747 kilometers to be exact! » laughs during an exchange with AFP Naomi Imbang, 28 years old, who will come from the Philippines because she was unable to obtain a place in Asia.
Rhonda Nye didn’t even manage to get “an access code” to book online in her country, Canada, but snatched tickets to come to Lyon with her husband and two children aged 6 and 12.
“If it wasn’t for Taylor, we wouldn’t have done this trip at all,” which will also take them to Paris, London and Juno Beach, she laughs. If the total cost of the holiday risks “exceeding 10,000 euros” all inclusive, “it’s worth it for this unique experience”.
“It’s much cheaper for us to come to France to see Taylor” than to attend her concert in Canada, reassures Lenka, 55, who will travel with her daughter, her niece and her sister-in-law.
“Instead of spending $2,000 on a ticket and accommodation in Toronto, we decided to fly to France.” The ticket (275 euros), the flight and the hotel cost around 1,330 euros per person, she estimates.
“Exceptional”
Lyon, which has the second largest hotel capacity in France with 272 establishments and some 20,000 rooms, is delighted with this surge.
“This concert really moves the crowds,” notes the commercial director of the Pullman Hotel, Alice Ferraris.
“As soon as the concert dates fell, the next day or the day after, we were full,” confides, on condition of anonymity, the receptionist of a five-star hotel in Lyon.
At this stage, 80% of rooms are reserved for June 2-3, according to the tourist office, compared to 30% occupancy a month before an ordinary weekend. “In the month of June, it is clearly exceptional,” underlines one of its representatives.
And the average hotel room price jumped 54% from the following and previous weeks, according to a March publication from research firm Lighthouse.
In the city center, the Maison No hotel is full on June 2 at an average rate of 300 euros, compared to 140 euros in normal times. For the evening of the Coldplay concert at the end of June, the room costs “only” 240 euros, notes one of its employees.
Lipstick
Sommelier based in Lyon since 2017, Caroline Falezi is organizing a series of events at the beginning of June, which combine discovery of the region and the world of the singer: dinner with “Swifties” in a “bouchon”, karaoke and “red bar in lips” in a Beaujolais château or brunch with drag queens.
“I wasn’t a Swiftie to begin with, but when the dates were announced, I got a few reservation emails, and I said to myself that it was a great opportunity,” says this 36-year-old American.
“It’s really huge that she’s coming here,” enthuses the one who got into the game and created a Facebook page to unite the public in Lyon. “I want us to share something special.”
The Eras Tourwhich began in March 2023 in the United States, became at the end of 2023 the first tour in history to sell more than a billion dollars in tickets, making the singer the first artist to become a billionaire thanks to income from her music alone. .
