This is New York City tourism (Taylor’s Version).
Swifties are coming to the Big Apple with their wallets open to walk in Taylor Swift’s footsteps — sparking a new wave of tourism focused on her favorite haunts.
One such jaunt, “Taylor Swift’s New York: A Walking Tour,” offers participants a chance to tour lower Manhattan through the singer’s eyes, which funnels business toward the star’s favored date night restaurants and the bakery that made her 34th birthday cake.
“They all want to taste the same cake that she had for her birthday last year,” said tour guide Matthew LaSpata of a stop at Milk Bar, adding that while not everyone is a cake lover, most guests are willing to give it a try.
The Post trailed LaSpata last Saturday as he brought nine tourists to a variety of hotspots with ties to Swift, like Electric Lady Studios, where she recorded Lover, Folklore and much more, as well as the campus of New York University, where Swift gave a 2022 commencement speech.
The group also loitered around Greenwich Village’s Cornelia Street — which has its very own song named after it — and two of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s homes, including the star’s $50 million Tribeca mansion.
Because many of the crooner’s haunts are inaccessible to the public, LaSpata injected several Swiftie restaurants and businesses throughout the walking tour that offered some sort of memorabilia for the guests to take home — and they eagerly seized the opportunity.
Sophie Demurjian, owner of the clothing and accessories shop cutandcropped in Soho, estimated that 60% of her customer base are Swifties.
The Spring Street business sells sweatshirts with a variety of celebrity-inspired products, like sweatshirts with lyrics and stars’ faces on them, but Swift merchandise always seems to sell out the fastest.
“She’s so heavily embedded in a lot of New York things and so people associate the idea of New York — especially Soho because that’s where she pictured like 90% of the time — with her. And all her songs, there’s so much reference to New York,” Demurjian explained, adding that the pop star draws in customers from across the globe every single day.
“It’s a mixture of people who are looking for a full experience that has to do with her. And a lot of people visit New York because of Taylor Swift. ‘Welcome to New York’ and all those things, that is a huge reason why people want to go to New York, especially the younger crowd.”
Swift’s impact has directly influenced how Demurjian approaches her business. The shop owner buys higher quantities of merchandise associated with the singer compared to other pop stars with the expectation that it will sell out faster.
The Swift-impact is universal across the Big Apple — last year, Google searches for Milk Bar surged nearly 4,000% after the “All Too Well” singer was spotted enjoying the bakery’s cake at her star-studded 34th birthday party, according to a Mashed study.
Milk Bar quickly capitalized on the brag by reposting pictures of the bash to its own social media pages — and clips of Swift calling the $140 bestselling birthday cake her “fave cake.”
At Housing Works Bookstore in Nolita, between three and four Swifties stop by every week to witness the venue where Swift filmed the concluding scenes of her music film “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” — even three years after the video’s release.
“We actually put a little plaque on the floor that says ‘Taylor stood here’, because so many people were coming in and asking where she stood,” said Erica Pratico, the bookshop’s experiential operations manager.
Most of the Swifties grab a coffee from the shop’s cafe or purchase book as a piece of memorabilia, but Housing Works expanded its line of Swift merchandise to further cater to the dedicated group of visitors — the nonprofit just released its own branded red scarves in imitation of the “All Too Well” iconography and offers “Merry Swiftmas” holiday cards.
The bookstore also just celebrated its third annual Swift Karaoke event, which drew 150 Swifties this year clambering for the chance at winning prizes donated by the singer’s own headquarters. Tickets sold for $10 each, or $20 for a guaranteed spot on the stage.
“It’s fun,” Pratico said. “It’s just such a warm, uplifting group of people, and they just have so much fun together. So I think it’s as much for their community and gathering as it is to be like, ‘Oh yeah, Taylor stood here.’”
Rosie and Madison included the Taylor Swift walking tour in their girls’ weekend itinerary. J.C. Rice
LaSpata’s own tour sells tickets at $40 a pop and draws guests from across the country — with some even flying into the city just to participate in the pop star romp.
“It seems like Taylor Swift is motivated to provide joy and happiness to people and to have a small portion of sharing joy and happiness with people is just such a cool thing,” explained LaSpata, who originated the tour in April and has been running it up to four times a week since.
A large majority of the participants are young women and girls, according to LaSpata. Many are tourists, but he’s also met with plenty of locals hoping for the chance to see Manhattan through Swift’s eyes.
“It’s so cool just feeling their energy and seeing the joy and happiness this little tour brings.”
For Saturday’s tour group, shelling out a few dollars for the chance to walk the same streets as their favorite star was a small price to pay.
Superfan Lucy Sechenke, 13 — who flew in from Cincinnati, Ohio with her three sisters, mother and grandma — explained that Swift had grown to mean much more to her than an incredible singer over the years.
“She’s helped me through a lot of tough times with bullying at my school and everything,” Lucy told The Post — adding that she had been to the Eras Tour three times.
“She kind of gave out words of encouragement to me, and she’s been like a very fun role model to look up to. She pretty much is like the closest thing to an older sister — even though I have one. She’s super fun to look up to.”
Younger sister Rosie, 7, added that Swift serves as the family’s favored artist on karaoke nights: “I like Bad Blood!”
Little Alana Rios, 11, who came in from the Bay Area for a girl’s trip with her mom Maria and sister Olivia, 9, recently celebrated a birthday that was Swift-themed — which featured a birthday cake with a photoshopped image of Alana shaking Swift’s hand.
Capping off a New York City weekend of Broadway shows and evening walks with a Swift walking tour seemed like the right thing to do, Maria noted.
“We have to do this for sure. I couldn’t take them to the Era’s Tour, so this is like the next thing,” said the mom of two.