When the city-state was announced as the only South-East Asian stop for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Malaysian fan Hilmi Hamid immediately planned a holiday here to catch her performance.
Having spent almost RM10,000 for his flights, accommodation, and three concert tickets, the 24-year-old web-based developer said it was worth it as he had been a fan since 2016.
He is one of many fans from the region flying in just to see her.
Swift, 33, will be performing for six nights at the National Stadium from March 2 to 4 and 7 to 9, 2024.
About 300,000 fans are expected to attend and tickets for the shows, which cost between S$88 and S$1,228 (RM300-RM4,206), sold out over two days.
On July 6, Singapore-based Filipino engineer Jonathan Castro, 51, queued at Singapore Post’s Woodlands Civic Centre branch for more than 18 hours to buy tickets for his daughters, spending almost S$1,000 (RM3,400) on four tickets.
Hotels, airlines and local travel operators said they anticipate a travel boom in March 2024, thanks to Swift.
Hotel operator Accor, which operates over 30 hotels in Singapore, said there has been a spike in demand for hotel bookings, because of her concerts.
It added: “We are seeing an upsurge in demand over concert dates at a much higher rate than we would normally see for this period, eight months in advance. Some of our hotels are already fully booked.”
Cinn Tan, chief commercial and marketing officer of Pan Pacific Hotels Group, said Parkroyal Collection Pickering has seen a 200% increase in bookings for March 2 to 9, 2024, as compared with the week before tickets were released. She said most of these bookings came from Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Korea.
She added that Parkroyal on Beach Road also experienced a 20% increase in bookings for the same dates. — The Straits Times/ANN
