Taylor Swift’s sold-out concert set to make Singapore’s whole economy Shimmer: Economist

and uh calling all swifties are you ready for this it is a Taylor Swift concert weekend here in Singapore and she said to make the whole economy a shimmer the expected boost is no fairy tale though the IRS tour in the US was at one point blamed by some economists for an uptick in inflation now Recent research estimates that the tour generated a $5 billion economic boost to the US bigger than the whole whole economy of Timor Lee a ticket sales alone brought in $1 billion last year and each concert goer spent an average of $1,300 helping businesses near concert venues now here in the Asia Pacific the block busted tour is only happening in Japan Australia and Singapore and the phenomenon now known as Swift ecomics is apparent a one estimate pegs the economic value of Swift's concerts in Melbourne and nearly $790 million another research says have four shows in Tokyo may have brought in close to $230 million now it's Singapore's turn demand for hotels and flights have surged and travel related services are ready to cated to swifties from across southeast Asia the hopes are high that Swift's concert starting tomorrow would solidify sao's reputation as an entertainment venue bringing in an economic boost that never goes out of style and David man Chief Economist Asia Pacific at Masa joins us for more to talk all things Taylor Swift Today bit different from our regular business chats but I think I want to ask you first is is this estimate of how much uh you know Swift's tours could bring in for Singapore I we've seen those Stellar figures for Australia and uh Japan as well so they some pretty high hopes for Singapore well that's absolutely right in the study that we did looking at the impact on the tours as she went around the us we believe that there's a fair expectation that you should be seeing around 60 to 70% uplift in the bars and restaurants spending figures around the times of the concerts at least in the areas that are convenient enough for then getting to the venue and in the case of Singapore there's plenty place is very convenient for that also we should be expecting the accommodation side which in the case of the US was up around 30% in the cities that had that that events taking place something like that should also be happening in Singapore because we know there'll be even more of the international Travelers coming in and then in addition to that the extra spending it's really even though we know the cost of living has gone up actually a lot of consumers have found ways to shake it off with experiences and that's what we've been seeing exactly all around the us and we think the same thing is going on here it was going on in Australia same thing for Singapore too yes travel uh you know the the hotel accommodation those are like pretty big you know boosts but there are some other um uh boosts to the economy little shops that we've seen in Singapore that you know um sell materials to make one of these like iconic um friendship bracelets these have also getting a boost in in in the last couple of months in fact so where else do you expect to see spending in and and what other sort of benefits could Swifts tours uh tour generate for Singapore well there is that feel good Factor there is that I really want to make sure I've got everything with me for the concert even including say these sort of bracelets as you mentioned if people oh would you like this one okay wait I actually have one here um you know I I know this is like a big part of the coner right where you have to exchange handmade friendship bands let's do one now then here you go so many I definitely want one from you thank you very much very much so yeah talk to us more about you know how these um these very cute friendship bracelets uh help the economy as well well the thing is that even with something like this you want to go and find them there's plenty places suddenly offering them knowing these opportunities are there for the tourists coming in and then of course there's plenty other things in the stores you get the foot traffic you get even more likelihood that other things are being purchased a bit of retail therapy happening at the same time around department stores all other places the other thing that we could get separate to say apparel or these sort of merch spending is also when people come in they may choose to spend a bit more time and go to some of the other sort of attractions that are there and in the case of Singapore could be the zoo could be down in santosa there's a lot of other options you could have and of course going to the bars and restaurants all of those parts of experiences and then the imperson retail getting that feel-good factor going even with things like this right ahead of the concert yes so definitely some spillover effects that you know um other businesses can enjoy but help us understand you know the scale and impact of this Swift lift so it's not the only mega event that Singapore has seen we have F1 um and and a whole lot other big events that are big Crow poers as well so how does you know Taylor Swift's concert and uh even Coldplay uh the six shows that they did how does it fair when compared to these other Mega events in Singapore well they all matter and certainly the crossborder tourism spending numbers are all clearly much higher you do get a different makeup of the tourist so for example more usually during the year you could see say Indonesian crossb spending or say Malaysia cross border spending being relatively stronger but during these events you could get tourists coming in from other markets for example the F1 would have been more from say the UK or from Australia and even from Hong Kong as we believe was going on this year as well um so you will get a change in the mix the difference I think also though is that for these concerts they're not quite as disruptive say with the F1 you do also get some disrupted effects that pushes some spending maybe to later or maybe even say folks in Singapore travel at that time outbound because they know that they could be a bit more of the disruptions in the case of these concerts it's more of people coming in you're not getting as much of the disruption it's it's a very smooth traveling experience anyway transport all around the city and actually in that way you could argue it's it's just as good if not better yeah one question is how much also of lift do you think um the TA tail Swift effect can give uh Singapore GDP uh and also whether it's enough to create sort of an upside risk to inflation well a lot of this really comes down to how long lasting the sort of Feelgood Factor can be certainly during the event no question you get that marginal extra positive on GDP marginal extra lift on say accommodations cost and food costs and things like that but is for a lasting impact that's really the other key factor here do you get even more of spending uh and I would argue that it comes from putting Singapore more on the map for example getting even more tourists coming in because they've seen it and see all these other things that you can be doing repeat visitors that persistent side is where it's a harder question to answer but certainly having these events and the sort of publicity that something like a global phenomenon like this one is having clearly would be adding to the upside risk that come from that sort of perspective yeah and finally do you know do you think we could see more of such uh Mega concerts you know stretching of course first thing big a and of course stretching more than like say six shows it's it's possible I think there was already a relative surprise take for example with Coldplay and new new shows got added and I think you could see some more of this though there is an an element of just how many are there these sorts of Acts that would attract that sort of volume of folks including coming in from outside I would not I want to move on from this without mentioning though that even with all of these challenges that many consumers face there has been an accumulation of excess savings ever since the covid pandemic the preference towards experiences is very strong and therefore there may be some pleasant surprises of just how many more you could actually add without saturating the market all right David appreciate your time coming in talk about tayor and thank you for this bracelet David man there achiev Economist Asia Pacific Master Card

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Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024