Booking platforms on The Edge of Glory as Lady Gaga fans drive demand for flights, hotels to Singapore

[SINGAPORE] Booking platforms have seen a surge in demand for flights and hotels days after American pop star Lady Gaga announced that Singapore will be her only stop in Asia during her current tour.

The singer will play four shows at the National Stadium on May 18, 19, 21 and 24. She last performed in the city-state in 2021 for three nights at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Some 200,000 local and international fans are expected to attend the concerts, according to Sports Hub manager Kallang Alive Sport Management, which worked with organiser Live Nation for the shows.

Hotel bookings for the concert week have already tripled compared to the same period last year, with the bulk of reservations made by users from China, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, said Trip.com Singapore general manager Edmund Ong.

The number of bookings for that week is also 76 per cent higher than those made the week after, from May 25 to 31.

“We expect the number of bookings to increase further once more people are able to confirm that they have managed to secure tickets to the concert, and especially as we get closer to May,” said Ong.

Skyscanner, too, has seen a surge in searches for flights to Singapore on the concert dates, said its travel trends and destination expert Cyndi Hui.

Worldwide searches for flights to Singapore were up 8.9 per cent week on week in the week of Mar 10, after Lady Gaga announced the concert dates.

More specifically, searches for flights to the Republic from May 5 saw a 65.6 per cent week-on-week increase, and “remained strong across the subsequent two weeks”, which includes the concert dates, said Hui.

The top five cities in which the searches originated were London, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei and Sydney. Meanwhile, the top South-east Asian cities with the highest number of searches include Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Bangkok.

Klook, which is the official experience partner of Gaga’s Mayhem tour, has seen “encouraging demand” for its tour experience packages, said Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore general manager Sarah Wan.

Still early days

While booking platforms have seen strong demand, hotels which The Business Times spoke to said it is too early to see a spike in demand, and they expect more bookings closer to the concert dates.

As at Mar 27, tickets were still available to be purchased across all seating categories for all four concert dates.

“Given that concert tickets have just been released, we have yet to observe an immediate surge in demand,” said Pan Pacific Hotels Group chief commercial and marketing officer Cinn Tan.

“However, based on our experience with past high-profile events in Singapore, such as (the) Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Bruno Mars concerts, we anticipate a steady increase in bookings in the coming weeks, peaking closer to the event dates.”

Jacqueline Poey, general manager of Sofitel Singapore City Centre, said the hotel has observed interest from customers for the Lady Gaga concert dates, but noted that “other market factors” have contributed to overall booking trends.

For instance, the steady demand for bookings on those dates could also be attributed to other big meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions taking place around that period, such as Semicon Southeast Asia 2025.

“The concert may have further fuelled interest, but bookings were already strong due to city-wide events,” said Poey.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines (SIA) declined to give booking data, citing commercial sensitivity.

Nevertheless, analysts from Bloomberg Intelligence anticipate that the shows could fuel SIA’s revenue and earnings growth for the first quarter, according to a Mar 17 report.