Swifties drive travel spike to Singapore for concert dates

SOME of the lucky ones who snagged tickets to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Singapore are getting ready for it – there has been a surge in searches and bookings for flights and accommodation.

The international pop star will play six concerts between Mar 2 and Mar 9 next year. In both the Jul 5 presale and Jul 7 general sale, tickets sold out within hours.

Official packages offered by activity-booking platform Klook, which bundled two concert tickets with a night’s stay in a hotel, sold out within six hours on Jul 7.

Swift hotel bookings

A report by hotel-industry research company STR showed that global artists such as Swift and British band Coldplay have caused noticeable spikes in demand, comparable to traditional events such as the Formula 1 (F1) night race and conventions.

Swift has triggered what is so far the biggest spike for the first half of 2024. Occupancy on the books for the period rose to 16.1 per cent as at Jul 10 – up from 11.9 per cent on Jul 3 and 5.6 per cent on Jun 5.

As at Jul 10, most hotels still indicated low occupancy, but 25 hotels have occupancy on the books of over 20 per cent during the first two of Swift’s tour dates, “with a handful of hotels much higher”.

Historically, only a few events – F1 and the Singapore Airshow being examples – “get close to this demand in advance”, said Jesper Palmqvist, STR’s area director for the Asia-Pacific. The concert spikes “are not only new and higher” but for longer, as artistes play more dates in one stop.

Booking site Agoda saw “160 times more searches than usual” for accommodation on the two days of ticket sales, compared to the corresponding weekdays before Swift’s tour dates were announced.

“The spike was mostly driven by interest from South-east Asia,” said an Agoda spokesperson. “The Philippines leads the pack, followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.”

Some five-star hotels told The Business Times that they have recorded an immediate uptick in room bookings.

For the concert stretch, about 10 per cent of One Farrer Hotel’s 252 rooms had been booked as at Monday (Jul 10), said its general manager Gilbert Madhavan. This was up from about 3 per cent on Jun 28, and 5 per cent on Jul 6.

“We can confidently attribute this increase to Taylor Swift’s concert, as the number of bookings is slightly higher than the rest of the weeks in March,” he said.

Pan Pacific Hotels Group has similarly locked down more bookings for its Parkroyal Collection and Parkroyal hotels. Parkroyal Collection Pickering had a 30 per cent jump on Jul 10 compared to Jul 6 – the day after the presale but before the general sale started. Bookings have come from Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea, said sales and marketing director Diana Lee.

Parkroyal on Beach Road logged a 20 per cent increase after the presale, said general manager Kung Teong Wah. The hotel also received a “high number” of enquiries from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, the United States and various European countries.

Noting that the rise coincides with ticket sales to the concerts, Kung added: “(This) strongly suggests that fans are proactively planning their trip and securing their accommodation in advance.” Concert-period rates at Parkroyal on Beach Road rose 20 per cent after tickets went on sale, reflecting “supply-and-demand dynamics” driven by “rising interest and anticipation”.

In contrast, Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay did not report any significant surge, said its general manager Melvin Lim. He said it was difficult to share projections, because bookings might not be made so far in advance.

Said STR’s Palmqvist: “We would expect more travel plans to be made during July, and thus an increase in Singapore hotel occupancy, as final ticket allocations are made.”

Prices have also risen at some three- and four-star hotels. A single room at the three-star Robertson Quay Hotel cost S$191 during the concert period, based on Trip.com data collected on Jul 9. This is 44.7 per cent more than the S$132 rate on the morning of Jul 5, before tickets were released.

Getaway planes

STR said: “While flight prices today remain reasonable for that week from the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, it has started to increase due to this new demand.”

Airfares for some flights to Singapore jumped across Swift’s tour dates in the weekend after ticketing, based on Trip.com data collected by BT. These were flights from Manila on Jetstar Asia and Scoot, from Bangkok on Jetstar Asia and Scoot, and from Jakarta on Jetstar Asia and Indonesia AirAsia.

On Trip.com, bookings for flights and accommodation surged 50 per cent in the Jul 5 to Jul 9 period, compared to Jun 14 to Jun 18, just before the concerts were announced.

Average inbound flight prices increased 262.8 per cent post-ticketing compared with pre-announcement, or 398 per cent against the weekend before tickets went on sale.

On Expedia, average daily searches for flights from Jul 8 to Jul 10 were “around 2.5 times more” than in the corresponding weekdays before concert dates were announced, said Expedia Brands’ Asia public relations director Lavinia Rajaram.

While search interest continues to be mainly driven by US travellers, there was “sizeable interest from Asia markets including Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong”, she added.

No closure yet

Interest was emerging even before Swift’s tour tickets saw daylight. Just after the Singapore concerts were announced at the end of June, accommodation searches on Booking.com increased 10-fold for the dates, against the same period last year.

Demand is expected to keep rising in the months till March 2024. With rampant reselling and short flight booking windows regionally, Palmqvist would not rule out more activity closer to the concert dates: “We will keep tracking.”