Resentment over subsidies for Taylor Swift’s Singapore tour

In the glitzy Asian city-state of Singapore, sequins are in, limos polished and hotel pillows fluffy.

Having the city host Taylor Swift’s Eras tour this week: an honor, but one that has come at a cost.

The price was initially reported to be S$24 million (£14 million; $18 million) for all six shows to be exclusive to the Southeast Asian country.

Culture Minister Edwin Tong has since told CNA Singapore that the figure is “not that high”, although he still refuses to give an exact figure. The broadcaster, however, suggested it could have been only S$2 million for the six.

But the fact that money had been spent only came to light after an outburst from Thailand’s prime minister, who accused Singapore of paying concert organizers between $2 million and $3 million a night.

That sparked criticism throughout the region. In the Philippines, one lawmaker criticized the measure, saying “this is not what good neighbors do” and called for a formal protest against the subsidy.

But while governments are in the red, it is the fans who pay the price, literally.

Swift is heard everywhere in Southeast Asia, home to approximately 700 million people, from the alleys of Ho Chi Minh to the taxis of Bangkok.

So for many it was a punch in the gut to learn that all six shows would take place in the most expensive city in the region.

Singapore’s currency, one of Asia’s strongest, has long been a deterrent to visitors. But for a chance to see their idol, many of their fans are willing to grin and bear it.

Numerous fan flights have been landing at Singapore Changi Airport all week, many of them from China and its territories.

Swift doesn’t play in China, so Singapore is the best option for many.

A woman flying from Shenzhen told the BBC that she and her friend had spent S$1,200 each on tickets alone. They resorted to camping at a friend’s house after hotel rates increased across the city.

On the luxury front, the city’s iconic hotel, Marina Bay Sands, sold out its S$50,000 Swift packages that included four VIP tickets and a three-night stay in a suite.

Then there is Allen Dungca, 22, in the Philippines, who pooled his salary to take him and his mother to Singapore.

This Thursday, they will take a four-hour bus ride to Manila, stay at an airport motel for the night, and then catch their dawn flight the next day.

The enterprising student purchased the travel package in July. He finally located the tickets on a resale night, after weeks of desperate searching.

“I’m very lucky,” he says of shelling out S$400 for seats in the nosebleed section. “The seller was friendly and not a reseller.”

Resales now cost thousands. And he had almost fallen for a scam, a shady character called Pat Steve, who was then exposed online.

He estimates that the entire effort is costing him S$2,000, the monthly income of an upper-middle-class family in the Philippines, a country where a fifth of the population lives below the poverty line.

“Right now, I’m a student with a part-time job and I can handle my wants and needs. But it’s sad, other Swifties don’t have the means or budget to take care of her abroad and I know that most Filipino Swifties love her. a lot.”

The Philippines arguably has Swift’s most passionate fan base: Spotify data showed that Quezon City in Manila had played the most streams of the singer last year.

The pop star has toured the Philippines before, but Singapore’s money market certainly sweetened the deal, analysts say.

Clean and modern Singapore has long been considered a base in the region for large events. It has the infrastructure, the transport links and a population with high incomes and large numbers of expatriates.

It is also considered stable in a region that has experienced political chaos. A decade ago, Swift canceled her shows in Thailand due to the military coup and resulting protests.

Still, while it is common for governments around the world to provide subsidies and tax breaks to host events, the reported spending goes beyond anything else publicly known in Singapore.

Samer Hajjar, a marketing professor at the National University of Singapore, says it’s “above average” even for the city-state.

And the fans are pretty direct. “He’s a bit greedy,” Dunga says. “But it’s prudent… because their economic response will be much more than that.”

In Australia, the leg of the tour preceding Singapore, officials suggested the tour had provided a A$145 million “boost” in consumer spending. More than 570,000 tickets were sold over seven nights in Sydney and Melbourne, almost double the number sold at the six Singapore shows.

But not all that money counts, economists say.

More than 90% of the show’s attendees were likely locals, estimates Dr. Brendan Rynne, chief economist at KPMG, so their dollars would be “just a transfer from one spending (or saving) category to another.”

Still, Australia did not use public funds to have Swift perform in the country, state government officials confirmed to the BBC. Neither did Japan, the tour’s only other Asian stop.

Singapore has said Swift’s tour will bring certain economic benefits to the country.

But it is unclear how much net profit will be generated. The BBC has contacted Singapore’s tourism board, but they have refused to reveal estimates of foreign visitors or other models.

A local bank, Maybank, has suggested that consumer spending could exceed S$350 million, but that is based on the very optimistic prediction that 70% of attendees will be from out of town.

Even the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix only had 49% foreign spectators in 2022, with a record 300,000 spectators.

When pressed on the figures, Maybank economist Erica Tay was unable to elaborate, saying the 70% rate was based on Singapore’s “potential uptake” and that the bank was not interested in estimating the net profit. .

“Six concerts may not materially boost a nation’s economic growth, but the strategic value of Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Singapore as a tourist destination outweighs that one-time boost,” he said.

But business professor Julien Cayla of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore says public spending needs to be scrutinized, especially when it is only revealed to citizens by another country’s government.

And in a country where social benefits are relatively limited, it could be seen as a complicated expense.

“To justify spending (allegedly) S$24 million on something that on the surface might not seem that critical to the country’s economic health rather than spending on people and public services… there is a tension there,” he said. Professor Cayla.

However, he and others say that when it comes to tourism planning, governments have a mandate to spend money and Singapore is no exception.

“They don’t necessarily like to advertise it. But the moment the government sees something that fits into a long-term strategy, they will allocate government money to support it,” he says.

In a way, Singapore has just attracted Swift in the same way it currently attracts large multinational corporations.

“What’s different here is that Taylor Swift as a business is a very emotional business,” he said.

“It’s about addressing the emotions of young people aged 10 to 18, who are very sad about not seeing the concert in Bangkok or Jakarta.”

And in the words of the singer herself, that has caused a lot of resentment.