Singapore, Australia see Taylor Swift travel boom
Following the release of dates in Australia, fans lucky enough to secure tickets were faced with hotel prices at two and a half times the standard rate. Online fan forums were awash with claims that accommodation in the city had spiked to $400-$500 a night.
“The problem is a lot of people will HAVE to fly,” says concert-goer Ash Louise.
She was planning travel from Brisbane having secured a ticket in Melbourne. An 18-hour drive is not practical, especially if she has to be back at work for Monday.
It’s not only in Australasia that this effect is being seen, but across the Pacific.
Southeast Asia might be the region that has seen the largest uptick in Taylor-related air travel. Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were similarly snubbed for Eras Tour dates, despite enormous demand. Instead, six dates were added to the Singapore National Stadium. It is the longest run of shows anywhere on the tour circuit.
Some 22 million users registered for access to the 330,000 available tickets during the July 7 general sale.
With six shows between March 2 and 9 next year, the city state has become the centre of a pop music pilgrimage. Airfares, accommodation and travel costs have skyrocketed.
There has been a huge surge in travel bookings from the Philippines, with many making the 2400km journey from Manila. Airfares for the route on Singapore Airlines between February 29 and March 8 were already double the cost of the prior month.
The Philippines has a fanatical fan base of Taylor Swift music, second only to the US. According to Spotify streaming data, the superstar has had 230 chart appearances there, with nine number 1 hit singles.
One Taylor Swift tragic told the Straits Times he had spent $3600 for flights and accommodation after securing tickets.
“I’ve never been to Singapore, but [I’d do] anything to see Taylor Swift,” he said.
Although Singapore Airlines could not divulge whether they were considering adding additional services, a spokesperson for the airline told the Herald it is standard practice to add more flights in the face of prevailing demand.
“While we’re unable to provide specific figures on year-on-year trends on bookings into Singapore due to commercial sensitivities, we have seen continued strong demand in our forward bookings into 2024, including through March.”
Other airlines including Malaysian Airlines and Jetstar were already upping services to the city on the straits, from Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. While much of this follows seasonal demand, the cost of flights over the week of Swift’s tours has soared by between 50 and 130 per cent.
A representative for Taylor Swift’s management had previously said that the production was offsetting the show’s carbon emissions.
“Before the tour kicked off in March of 2023, Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel,” a spokesperson told Insider and JetSpy in August.
However, the Herald could not obtain an exact tonnage of offsets from the tour management nor information on whether the calculations included audience travel or just travel undertaken by the two Dassault jets, N621MM and N898TS.
In either case, offsetting travel is not the same as reducing travel emissions.
As other touring production companies have shown, carbon credits are one tool for addressing sustainability, but it is always preferable to reduce overall travel rather than offset fuel that needn’t be burned.
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