Coldplay and Taylor Swift live shows to contribute to Singapore’s growth

Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, and now Taylor Swift. Singapore is eyeing concert economics as its recent growth driver, which is about so as to add lots of of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tourism receipts.

“The Lion City has traditionally been more a magnet for business travel, but these large-scale global music events are a boon for Singapore’s travel-related services that may add as much as 10% of its GDP,” HSBC’s ASEAN economist Yun Liu wrote in a recent note.

In January, British band Coldplay performed six shows at Singapore’s National Stadium. Fans bought 200,000 tickets because the shows sold out inside hours, breaking the city-state’s record for essentially the most tickets sold by an artist in a single day. Singapore was Asia’s predominant stop for Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour — boosting the country’s tourism industry.

Asia-Pacific travel platform Agoda recorded a “massive surge” in search traffic for accommodations in Singapore spanning Coldplay’s concert dates. The corporate said interest for those dates was 8.7 times higher after the band began ticket sales in June. Agoda said the rise was driven largely by neighboring countries Malaysia and Indonesia.

And starting this weekend, Singapore will host American popstar Taylor Swift, whose Eras Tour within the U.S. last 12 months was estimated to generate around $4.6 billion in consumer spending.

“Taylor Swift can be widely expected to generate a large economic boost, given her past record,” Liu added. 

Shortly after the singer announced her concert dates within the city-state, Singapore hotel bookings for March 2024 surged 10%, data from hotel analytics company Smith Travel Research showed. Swift is scheduled to perform six shows in early March and the month is heading in the right direction to hit the highest occupancy levels out of the primary eight months in 2024, in response to STR data.  

Demand for flights into Singapore also soared. Swift’s blockbuster tour is simply traveling to 3 countries in Asia-Pacific: Japan, Australia and Singapore. Last week, the Singapore Tourism Board said it provided a grant to bring Swift’s Eras Tour to the country.

Each the country’s flagship carrier Singapore Airlines and budget airline Scoot told CNBC that demand for flights to Singapore in March has jumped, particularly from Southeast Asia. Jetstar Asia also confirmed it saw demand surge roughly 20% for routes connecting destinations like Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta to Singapore.

Swift’s live shows are expected to generate about 350 million to 500 million Singaporean dollars ($260.3 million to $371.9 million) in tourism receipts — assuming that around 70% of concertgoers are flying in from overseas — said Erica Tay, director of macro research at Maybank.

“If she didn’t have Singapore as a stop, I won’t buy a ticket,” said 22-year-old Singaporean student Mavis Mook, who spent almost SG$300 ($223.38) for a Taylor Swift concert ticket.

“I would like to experience this with the buddies who’ve also grown up with me. It might be so hard to fly over together only for one concert,” she added. Mook told CNBC she spent a further SG$150 on a concert outfit and beads for friendship bracelets, which concertgoers have swapped at every tour stop. She’s also put aside funds to purchase tour merchandise.

Singapore has also attracted the likes of Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Blackpink and other marquee performers. A star-studded concert slate grants Singapore a recent shine as a tourism destination.

“Traditionally it has been a MICE sector – meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions – which tended to draw affluent business travelers,” said HSBC’s Liu.

Singapore has heavy exposure to tech manufacturing and finance, but travel-related services make up 10% of the country’s GDP, she said.

Event tourism is reshaping the travel industry post-pandemic as more persons are willing to fly to attend live shows or sporting events, Maybank’s Tay observed.