SINGAPORE – Swiftie tourism – the phenomenon of Taylor Swift fans travelling to different countries to attend the American pop star’s Eras Tour concerts – has emerged as a significant economic force in the past year.
A recent report from Bloomberg highlighted that her shows in Paris on May 9 to 12 – which kicked off the European leg of her tour – may have drawn five times as many Americans as the French capital’s upcoming Olympic Games in late July to early August.
But there is another emerging variety of “Taylor Tourism”, which sees fans flocking to locales mentioned in her music.
And that has become even stronger with the April 19 release of her latest and 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), which includes tracks titled Florida!!! and So Long, London.
And on the track The Black Dog, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter bitterly laments seeing her former lover walking “into some bar called The Black Dog”.
Swifties surmised that it referred to The Black Dog pub in London’s Vauxhall neighbourhood, as Swift had previously spent a lot of time in London with her former boyfriend, British actor Joe Alwyn.
One pub employee told entertainment outlet People: “We’ve had (Swifties) from all over... Every single day since the album has been released, we’ve had to turn people away as we’re at maximum capacity.”
As one member of the Taylor Swift forum on Reddit wrote: “I always forget that there are thousands and thousands of people who treat every location she mentions as a brand-new tourist attraction.”
The Straits Times rounds up eight travel destinations immortalised in her hit songs that should be on every Swiftie’s bucket list.
Florida
One could say that Florida is the Yishun of the United States – or perhaps Yishun is the Florida of Singapore. Both have reputations as hotbeds for strange incidents and even stranger people.
It is the south-eastern state’s reputation that inspired Swift to write the TTPD track Florida!!!, in which she calls it “one hell of a drug” and sings: “I need to forget, so take me to Florida/I’ve got some regrets, I’ll bury them in Florida.”
Although renowned for its amusement parks like Walt Disney World Resort, sunny climate and wetlands, Florida’s offbeat sightseeing options include the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami, the Neptune Memorial Reef underwater cemetery in Key Biscayne and the coastal fortress at Dry Tortugas National Park off Key West.
Swift also namedrops Destin, a popular Florida getaway known for its beaches.
London
On the track London Boy from her album Lover (2019), Swift namedrops multiple locales in the British capital, including Shoreditch, Brixton and Bond Street.
Fans can easily curate a few days of fun out of the places and activities she highlights in the song, from “high tea” to “walking Camden Market” to “watching rugby” in the pub.
If London Boy is an ode to falling in love with Alwyn, then the TTPD track So Long, London is the wrenching goodbye to both that six-year relationship and the time the couple spent together in the city.
In it, Swift sings about being left “at the house by the Heath” – presumably the scenic park of Hampstead Heath, which she also namedrops in London Boy as a place where she would hang out with Alwyn “like a Tennessee Stella McCartney”.
But it is not “so long, London” quite yet for Swift, who will be performing eight shows at Wembley Stadium in late June and mid-August.
Clara Bow’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles
The closing track of TTPD is Clara Bow, in which Swift reflects on how the entertainment industry is frequently looking for the next big female star to replace the current “It girl”.
It is also an ode to the titular American actress, who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles is located by the intersection of Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard, and Swifties have been quick to hunt it down for selfie opportunities.
The same intersection is mentioned in her 2017 song Gorgeous, where she sings: “Whisky on ice, Sunset and Vine.”
The Lakes
On The Lakes, off the album Folklore (2020), Swift sings about being taken to “the lakes where all the poets went to die”. In the Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions documentary, she also talks about holidaying in the Lake District in north-western England, where 19th-century English poets like William Wordsworth and John Keats retreated to.
Windermere, whose peaks are referenced in the ballad, is the largest lake in the area and in England.
New York City
The opening song of Swift’s most successful album to date, 1989 (2014), is Welcome To New York – a hopeful tune that sets the tone for her career shift into pop stardom. She moved from Nashville to New York City (NYC) in 2014.
On the Folklore track Cardigan, Swift sings “your heartbeat on the High Line”, which many fans take as a reference to the park of the same name in Manhattan, built on an abandoned rail viaduct.
Meanwhile, Lover includes an emotional ballad called Cornelia Street – a street in NYC’s Greenwich Village where she briefly rented an apartment in 2016 and 2017.
Even though Swift moved out many years ago, her fans continue to flock there for photo opportunities with the street sign.
In Brooklyn, the Coney Island neighbourhood shares a name with a track from the album Evermore (2020). While the song is about grief over lost love, Coney Island is a happier destination. It boasts two amusement parks, Luna Island and Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, and an famous boardwalk.
Paris
Swift’s album Midnights (2022) has a bonus track called Paris, in which she sings about being in such a romantic haze that makes her feel like she is in the City Of Love.
Unsurprisingly, she chose it as one of her two “surprise” songs during the acoustic set of her Eras Tour concert in Paris.
Her music video for Begin Again, off her album Red (2012), is also set in Paris, and sees her indulging in romantic activities along the city’s iconic River Seine, such as strolling down the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge and wandering the Ile de la Cite island.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island is famed for sandy shores and seaside colonial towns, and Swift’s mansion there – now known as High Watch – has a fascinating history, having once belonged to an American socialite named Rebekah Harkness.
Harkness, who died in 1982 at the age of 67, was known for being eccentric. She had a group of friends called the “B**** Pack” and once allegedly dyed a cat green. Swift references both incidents in her song The Last Great American Dynasty from the Folklore album.
While Swift’s holiday home is not open to tourists, Westerly – the beach-front town where it is located – is a popular summer getaway spot. It is a three-hour drive from either New York City or Boston.
Nashville
“Green was the colour of the grass, where I used to read at Centennial Park. I used to think I would meet somebody there,” Swift sings in Invisible String from Folklore, referencing a popular park in her erstwhile home town of Nashville, Tennessee.
Her family moved from Pennsylvania to the Nashville suburbs in 2003 in support of the then-teen’s musical career, which in its early stages was rooted in the country genre.
In honour of the mention – and of Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Nashville in May 2023 – the city dedicated a bench to the pop star.
The Lover track I Think He Knows also cites Nashville, and specifically 16th Avenue, which is also known as “Music Row” because it houses all the big country music record labels.
Swifties can also stop by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which has an exhibit of Swift artefacts, such as her koi fish-emblazoned blue guitar which she uses during select Eras Tour concerts.
