January 2024
Consumer Morsel: Sparks fly on local spending during live events
Live events, such as the Super Bowl, stadium concerts and marathons, boost consumer spending in host cities.
Key takeaways
- Cities are reaping economic benefits as consumers splurge on experiences and live entertainment. To dig into this, we take a look at four major live events that occurred last year and examine how consumer spending in each city contributed to the overall economic impact.
- Using Bank of America internal data, we find "stadium events" such as Super Bowl LVII in Arizona and a Taylor Swift concert in Pittsburgh saw significant boosts in spending per active household over their respective weekends compared to the rest of the month. Phoenix-area restaurants and bars saw an average combined increase of 25.6% from visitors, whereas Pittsburgh saw a 13.2% increase from residents.
- Other major live events such as the Chicago Marathon and South by Southwest in Austin drew in a high share of visitors and our data finds these tourists increased spending on leisure activities like museums and theaters. With consumer sentiment on the rebound and no shortage of demand, we think it is likely that consumer spending on live events will continue to positively impact local economies moving forward.
Read our full analysis for a more in-depth look at these trends.
