taylor swift asia concert tour

Taylor Swift adds three more concerts in Singapore, which remains the only Southeast Asian stop of The Eras Tour

Swift's only other Asia stops on the Eras Tour are in Tokyo, Japan

Taylor Swift has added three more shows in Singapore for the Asia leg of the Eras tour, bringing the total number of concerts she’ll play in the Southeast Asian city-state to six.

• READ MORE:  Taylor Swift: every single album ranked and rated

On Sunday (June 25), concert promoter AEG Presents Asia took to social media to announce the new 2024 tour dates, added due to “overwhelming response”. On top of the existing March 2-4 shows, she’ll play three new concerts from March 7-9. All Sabrina Carpenter . Singapore will be the tour’s only stop in Southeast Asia, per AEG Presents.

Fan registration for the general on-sale has begun here and ends 12pm local time on June 28. UOB Cardmembers pre-sales, which have a limited number of tickets available, kick off from 12pm local time on July 5 until 9am on July 7. General tickets will go on sale from 12pm local time on July 7 via Ticketmaster . Only access code holders will be able to purchase tickets in this general on-sale.

“We encourage all fans to register now until 28 June, 12pm (SGT), including UOB Cardmembers, for a chance to purchase tickets during the General On-sale,” AEG Presents said.

Singapore! Due to overwhelming response, we are thrilled to announce 3 additional shows for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour! Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour 🗓 2, 3 & 4 March 2024 🗓 7, 8 & 9 March 2024 [NEW DATES ADDED] 📍National Stadium ✨Supported by Sabrina Carpenter pic.twitter.com/Qbo88CwXdP — AEG Presents Asia (@aegpresentsasia) June 25, 2023

Buyers are limited to purchasing four (4) tickets. Tickets that are illegally resold may be rendered invalid, with refusal of entry. Ticket prices have yet to be announced.

Prior to Singapore, she will also perform in Japan from February 7 till February 10 at the Tokyo Dome. Carpenter is not slated to support these dates.

Taylor Swift’s Asian ‘Eras’ 2024 tour dates are: 

Recommended.

February 7 – Tokyo Dome – Japan February 8 – Tokyo Dome – Japan February 9 – Tokyo Dome – Japan February 10 – Tokyo Dome – Japan March 2 – Singapore National Stadium – Singapore March 3 – Singapore National Stadium – Singapore March 4 – Singapore National Stadium – Singapore March 7 – Singapore National Stadium – Singapore – NEW DATE March 8 – Singapore National Stadium – Singapore – NEW DATE March 9 – Singapore National Stadium – Singapore – NEW DATE

Swift’s Singapore shows come as part of larger announcement of international Eras Tour dates that include stops in South America, Europe, the UK and Australia.

Taylor Swift announced the ‘Taylor’s Version’ re-recording of her third album, ‘Speak Now’, revealing it onstage during the Nashville stop of her ‘Eras’ tour in May. It is set to arrive on July 7, with Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams confirmed as featured guests.

She last released her latest album ‘Midnights’ in October 2022. The record scored a four-star review from NME ’s Hannah Mylrea, who wrote: “After a foray into a different sonic world, on Swift’s return to pure pop she still shimmers.”

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Watch CBS News

Taylor Swift announces new Eras Tour dates in Europe, Australia and Asia

By C Mandler

June 20, 2023 / 6:55 PM EDT / CBS News

Pop superstar Taylor Swift  on Tuesday announced new concert dates in Asia, Australia and Europe for her Eras Tour , extending her performances through summer 2024. 

While Swift's tour was originally just over 50 dates, it has now expanded to more than 100, according to Forbes , with the international leg of the Eras Tour kicking off in August this year in Mexico City — after which Swift will hang up her guitar until November before resuming her stadium shows.

EXCUSE ME HI I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY 🙋‍♀️ I can’t wait to see so many of you on The Eras Tour next year at these new international dates! Visit https://t.co/EYBevxhQzH for more information on your registrations, pre-sales and on-sales!! pic.twitter.com/G8zx8QUUAV — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 20, 2023

Swift's Asia shows will begin next year with four nights in Japan's Tokyo Dome, starting on Feb. 7. Then she'll visit Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, as well as Singapore, before embarking on the tour's European leg in May with two shows in Paris. Unless Swift adds even more dates, she'll close out the Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium in London on August 17, 2024. 

The Eras Tour got off to a slightly rocky start when pre-sales for tickets resulted in a lawsuit against Ticketmaster from furious fans , who alleged that the company violated antitrust laws that are designed to protect market competition.

The suit claims that Ticketmaster knowingly sent out pre-sale codes to more fans than it could accommodate. As a result, millions of fans were denied the opportunity to purchase tickets . 

But with Swift playing to sold-out crowds either way, the tour is poised to make her a billionaire  and could end up being one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. According to  Forbes , the Eras Tour might earn Swift a cool $500 million on top of her existing estimated net worth of around $570 million.

Some cities are even seeing economic boosts in their local economies as a result of Swift's tour dates, with CBS Philadelphia reporting spikes in visitor center ticket sales and hotel reservations in Philly.

Swift's Pittsburgh shows from last weekend set a new record for the venue — her tour's second show in the city recorded an attendance of 73,117 at the Acrisure Stadium.

• Taylor Swift

C Mandler is a social media producer and trending topics writer for CBS News, focusing on American politics and LGBTQ+ issues.

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‘Cruel Summer’ for Taylor Swift fans in Asia as Singapore shows sell out

It’s been a Cruel Summer for Taylor Swift fans in Asia.

The heat was on last week as millions across the continent competed for just 300,000 tickets to see her in Singapore, which will host the only stop in Southeast Asia for the singer’s Eras Tour , which kicked off in March and will run until August 2024.

Swift will perform at the city state’s National Stadium next March. With other regional hubs like Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta having seemingly missed out on the chance to host the singer, demand for tickets to one of her six nights in Singapore has been skyrocketing.

Her fans elsewhere in the region blamed politics and a lack of infrastructure for failing to attract any highly coveted tour stops.

Organizers in Singapore said more than 22 million people registered for pre-sale tickets while online queues passed the one million mark.

When tickets went on sale Friday, they sold out within hours, leaving legions of “Swifties,” as the singer’s fans are known, disappointed and empty-handed.

So fierce has the competition been that fans have taken to calling it the “Great War” for tickets.

Among them was Jordan Lee, a die hard Swiftie from Jakarta who told CNN that he had come “close to snagging” a ticket, priced $80 and up.

“Friends and me joined the ‘Great War’ online and we had queue numbers from 900,000 to 300,000. We managed to get into ticket selection (on the Ticketmaster website) but were not able to check out. It was too sad.”

Lee is just one of countless Swift fans worldwide who has struggled to get a ticket for a tour that is reportedly on track to make a record $1 billion in sales.

The Eras Tour features more than 100 concerts in the United States , South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Apart from Singapore, Swift will play just one other country in Asia, Japan, and the resulting fan frenzy has captivated the region’s media outlets with stories about how far people will go to get a ticket.

While Swift mania looks set to give Singapore’s economy a massive boost, it has sparked a debate in other places in the region about why they missed out on such a lucrative event.

As Nur Hazlina, a disgruntled Swiftie from Kuala Lumpur told CNN: “If Taylor Swift doesn’t come to your country, it says something about the local tourism industry and economy.”

CNN has reached out to the concert organizer Ticketmaster and its subsidiary Live Nation for comment.

Politics and roads

In Thailand, Pita Limjaroenrat, who is vying to become the country’s next prime minister, declared himself a Swiftie and urged her to visit.

Taylor Swift is an unlikely public transit icon

“Thailand is back on track to be fully democratic after you had to cancel last time due to the coup,” the head of the progressive Move Forward Party said in a tweet that went viral. “The Thai people have spoken … and we all look forward to welcoming you to this beautiful nation of ours!”

In 2014, Swift was forced to cancel a sold out show in Bangkok following a military coup.

Move Forward has a huge following among young Thais for its reformist platform and won the most seats and largest share of the popular vote in the May election, though questions remain over whether the military elite will let them rule.

In the Philippines, home to one of the largest and most vocal Swift fanbases, introspection by the local media centered on whether the country had been overlooked due to its notorious traffic jams and poor public transportation .

Swift fans in the United States are known for championing public transport , sometimes overwhelming bus systems and subways when one of her shows is on.

An editorial in the Inquirer newspaper lamented that the famed Philippine Arena, the world’s largest indoor arena, might otherwise have been an ideal site.

“Getting to the Philippine Arena is a test of determination,” the paper said. “It is not enough to build sophisticated structures, it is also paramount to ensure that equally necessary features including road networks, parking lots, public bathrooms and most importantly, an efficient transport system, are available and accessible.”

Wardrobe concerns?

In Malaysia and Indonesia, both Muslim majority nations, some wondered whether conservative laws and the influence of hardline Islamic groups might have put off tour organizers.

Swift is known for flashy and sometimes revealing costumes on stage. Western acts in the two countries have occasionally caused controversy in the past.

Taylor Swift is having an un-'cruel summer,' and here's why

British band Coldplay recently came under pressure from a Malaysian Islamic party to cancel an upcoming show in Kuala Lumpur due to the band’s acceptance of gay rights.

Among those trying to snag online tickets to see Swift in Singapore was Malaysian politician Syed Saddiq, who once served as the country’s minister of youth and sports.

“Imagine the amount of money and visitors those six nights would bring [to Singapore] in such a short period of time,” he told CNN, while recalling how religious protesters had gathered outside a Selena Gomez concert he attended in Kuala Lumpur back in 2015.

“They weren’t violent but they made their views very clear, the same would happen with Taylor Swift if she came to Malaysia,” he said.

“Malaysia might have hosted some of the best events and concerts but that is no longer the case today. This is not how countries should market themselves.”

In Indonesia, hardline Islamic groups have in the past threatened violence in response to foreign music acts they deem inappropriate.

In 2012, Lady Gaga called off a sold out show in Jakarta, meant to be her biggest stop in Asia, after religious protesters threatened violence. The public uproar also resulted in Indonesian police refusing to issue permits for the star to perform.

Outside Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, often seen as a rival to Singapore , has also been debating why it might have lost out.

One event planner in the city told CNN that most venues were often “too small” and “difficult to secure.”

“Many big stars tend to skip Hong Kong. Venues can only hold about 20,000 people, which is too few for Taylor Swift and her Eras Tour, which will be a big production. Black Pink [in comparison] was a lot easier, and cheaper, to stage,” the person said, referring to the K-pop group.

Why Singapore?

Singapore, with a population of just six million has been “strategic and aggressive ” when it comes to business and promoting itself, experts told CNN, in a quest spearheaded by the government that has been years in the making.

“Singapore isn’t the cheapest place to do business but it has many other things going for it: well connected with efficient infrastructure already in place, public safety… all great incentives for event organizers who don’t want risks,” said economist Song Seng Wun.

“Swift is an extremely talented and savvy businesswoman. Every decision she makes about her tour would be strategic,” added Song, who lives in the city state.

In a statement to CNN, Kallang Alive Sport Management, a corporate entity established by Singapore’s Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Sport, celebrated its big win.

A spokesperson said the group “led discussions” around the concerts and took their planning to the finish line.

“Live performances draw larger crowds, and we responded by working with promoters to bring in more large-scale multiple-day concerts for our audiences. Today we are seeing significantly higher numbers of high quality concerts… with leading artistes choosing to perform in Singapore,” the spokesperson said.

“Many of these concerts sell out within hours of tickets going on sale and this … signals to the world that Singapore is the leading destination in Asia for live events.”

Additional reporting by CNN’s Chris Lau in Hong Kong

Taylor Swift is making Singapore a mountain of money, and some of the country's neighbors are salty about it

• Singapore is the only Southeast Asia stop of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
• The concerts are part of a push to boost tourism in Singapore after the height of the pandemic.
• But some Southeast Asian countries aren't happy about how it's all playing out.

Taylor Swift isn't just another celebrity on a world tour — she's literally boosting economies .

Her impact is so huge that Singapore shelled out nearly $3 million per show to sign an exclusive deal with her for the Southeast Asian leg of her Eras Tour, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said at a business forum last month.

Singapore authorities said its tourism board disbursed a grant to support Swift's event but declined to comment on specifics of the deal to Business Insider, citing business confidentiality. Edwin Tong, Singapore's culture minister, told the local outlet Mothership on Wednesday that the amount of grant given "is not what is being speculated online."

"It is likely to generate significant benefits to the Singapore economy, especially to tourism activities such as hospitality, retail, travel, and dining, as has happened in other cities in which Taylor Swift has performed," Singapore's culture ministry and tourism board said in a joint statement.

Swift is scheduled to perform six shows in Singapore from March 2 to March 9. More than 300,000 tickets have been sold.

But it's not just about the money.

Cultural clout

Mega-concerts such as Swift's help build Singapore's status as a fun place to visit rather than just a place to do business and hold trade events, tourism experts say.

After all, strait-laced Singapore isn't known for being the most exciting tourist destination.

"Live music from some of the biggest names in the industry marks a slight shift in Singapore's attractiveness as a tourism destination," Yun Liu, an HSBC economist, wrote in a February note.

Tong, the Singapore culture minister, told Mothership the city-state was looking "beyond just the economic impact" of those concerts.

"We look at it from the perspective of building Singapore into a cultural hub that's of strong strategic value for us," Tong told the outlet.

"Such concerts help put us on the top of the minds of tourists and position us as a luxe destination that justifies the premium," Kevin Cheong, the managing partner of Syntegrate, a consultancy for destination and tourism development, told BI.

Tourist spend

Everywhere Swift's tour goes, a boost in tourism-related spending follows, known as "Swiftonomics." That ranges from air tickets and accommodation to food and beverage, as well as niche retail sectors such as the sale of friendship bracelets .

Singapore is no exception.

Related stories

Economists estimate that Swift's concerts in Singapore could contribute up to 500 million Singapore dollars , or $372 million, in tourist receipts.

David Mann, the Asia Pacific chief economist of Mastercard, told BI that since Singapore is one of the most expensive cities in the world and has a strong currency, it was unlikely tourists from places with weaker currencies would be splurging on retail therapy in the country.

It's a different story for spending on experiences — and it's heightened because Singapore is Swift's only stop in Southeast Asia.

Mann said the people who had money to pay for flight tickets, Swift's concert tickets, and a hotel were likely to keep spending at other tourist spots.

Since the Singapore government collects a 9% tax on all goods and services, tourist spending goes to the national coffers, too.

"It goes to the entire ecosystem," Cheong said.

The Nomura economist Si Ying Toh wrote in a February note that Swift and the British band Coldplay — the first two major acts of 2024 in Singapore — were likely to contribute 0.25 percentage points to the country's first-quarter GDP.

Taylor Swift 'pays the bills' in the short term

Cheong said getting exclusive access to Swift was a smart short-term move by the Singapore government: "You need business right now to help pay the bills and put us on the world map."

The wealthy city-state's neighbors are taking notice, and not all of them are happy about it .

Singapore's move to award a grant for Swift's appearances in the city-state is done "at the expense of neighboring countries, which could not attract their own foreign concertgoers and whose fans had to go to Singapore," Joey Salceda, a Filipino lawmaker, told the Philippine Star on Thursday.

Srettha, the Thai prime minister, also threw Singapore some shade and suggested his country could have splashed some money to attract Swift's performance, too.

"If I had known this, I would have brought the shows to Thailand," Srettha was quoted as saying in the Bangkok Post , referring to Singapore's grant for Swift's concert.

The FOMO appears to extend to Indonesia, with the tourism minister, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, telling Bloomberg TV last month that the country needed Swiftonomics for tourism and was considering more incentives for large events such as concerts.

Still, Cheong said massive performance grants couldn't be Singapore's long-term solution to boost tourism.

"It's a wise move, but is it sustainable?" Cheong asked, saying he thought Singapore was courting mega-concerts as a short-term boost before big investments — such as an eco-resort and a new tower for the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel — were completed.

Cheong said the longer-term, more sustainable measure was to make Singapore so enticing that tourists and artists would come for their big-ticket events even without grants.

"It has to be as attractive as Las Vegas, where performers will definitely make a stop," he added.

Swift's PR team didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Watch: The Taylor Swift effect: How a pop star created her own economy

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Taylor Swift announces Singapore as only Southeast Asian stop for The Eras Tour in 2024

 Taylor Swift is coming to Asia.

The revered pop singer-songwriter will be bringing her famed  The Eras Tour to the region. The pop icon will be performing at Singapore's National Stadium on 2, 3, and 4 March 2024. 

We’re enchanted to announce @taylorswift13 is returning to Singapore in 2024 with Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour! It's the only stop in Southeast Asia! 👀💜 🗓️ 2,3 & 4 March 2024 📍National Stadium Supported by Sabrina Carpenter #SingaporeTSTheErasTour #TSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/tmVyH40Iud — AEG Presents Asia (@aegpresentsasia) June 20, 2023

Due to popular demand, Taylor has added an additional three dates to the Singapore leg of the tour, performing a total of six shows at the National Stadium on  2-4 and 7-9 March 2024. 

BANDWAGON TV

Singapore! Due to overwhelming response, we are thrilled to announce 3 additional shows for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour! Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour 🗓 2, 3 & 4 March 2024 🗓 7, 8 & 9 March 2024 [NEW DATES ADDED] 📍National Stadium ✨Supported by Sabrina Carpenter pic.twitter.com/Qbo88CwXdP — AEG Presents Asia (@aegpresentsasia) June 25, 2023

Accompanied by opening act Sabrina Carpenter, Singapore will be the only stop in Southeast Asia. Thousands of fans from the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and more are expected to fly in for the highly anticipated shows.

Tickets are priced at  SGD 108 (CAT 6), SGD 168 (CAT 5), SGD 248 (CAT 4), SGD 288 (CAT 3) SGD 328 (CAT 2),  and SGD 348 (CAT 1). General sale starts on 7 July, 12 PM SGT. Fans can register for the general on-sale from 23 June, 12 PM SGT until 28 June, 12 PM SGT. Sign up here .

Taylor Swift is bringing The Eras Tour to Asia and Australia – concerts in Tokyo, Singapore, Melbourne, and Syndey confirmed

Meanwhile, the UOB Cardmembers Presale begins on 5 July, 12 PM SGT and is happening until 7 July, 9 AM SGT. 

The Eras Tour , which initially kicked off in the US last March, sees Swift run through her 17-year spanning musical journey as she performs tracks from her 2006 debut album to her most recent record,  Midnights . Across a four-hour spectacle, the GRAMMY-winning act performs a 44-song long setlist interspersed with hits like 'Enchanted', 'Cruel Summer', 'Love Story', 'Don't Blame Me', 'All Too Well (10 Minute Verson)', 'august',  and  'Blank Space',  as well as a selection of surprise songs played acoustically. 

This will come as Swift's highly anticipated return to the region since 2018 during her  Reputation Tour . 

Listen to Taylor Swift's 'Bejeweled' here. 

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Think it’s hard to get a Taylor Swift ticket in the U.S.? Try competing with Swifties in Asia

HONG KONG — Millions of Taylor Swift fans in Asia competed for about 300,000 concert tickets Friday as general sales began for her six shows next year in Singapore , the singer-songwriter’s only stop in Southeast Asia.

Swift’s “Eras Tour,” which began in March and includes more than 100 shows on five continents, has set off a frenzy for tickets and is on track for a record $1 billion or more in sales. Some fans jockeying for the limited number of seats at Swift’s concerts have referred to their experience as “The Great War,” a song from her 2022 album “Midnights.”

But the war in Asia seems to be even greater. Fans on the world’s most populous continent have only two places, Japan and Singapore, where they can see Swift perform.

“I’ve never had any experience buying concert tickets like this before,” Iqhram Khan, a fan in neighboring Malaysia who successfully bought a ticket to one of the shows in Singapore, told NBC News via a messaging app.

Khan has been a Swiftie for more than 15 years and saw her perform in Malaysia in 2014 and in Japan in 2018.

Swift had initially announced seven concerts in Asia next year: four at the Tokyo Dome in February and three at the Singapore National Stadium in March. But due to what promoter AEG Presents Asia called “overwhelming” demand, the number of shows in Singapore was doubled.

She is also set to perform seven shows in Australia in February.

In Japan, tickets are being distributed through a lottery system. In Singapore, a Wednesday presale open only to credit card holders at United Overseas Bank drove a 45% increase in the bank’s daily average credit card applications in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, according to Bloomberg News .

General ticket sales for the Singapore shows are open only to those who registered in June and were selected to receive a code, although the code does not guarantee a ticket. Ticketmaster described the added step as “an extra line of defense against bots.”

But the competition, as well as the prospect of traveling long distances, haven’t stopped Asian Swifties from trying to see their star.

Khan said he waited four hours in line for a United Overseas Bank card after the international shows were announced last month. On Wednesday, he readied himself hours before the presale began, opening multiple browsers on five different devices.

Even so, his chances looked bleak. Almost all his numbers in line were six or seven digits: 600,000, 800,000, 1 million.

“Thankfully, one of the queue numbers was 59,000,” he said. “The one browser was my only hope to get the tickets.”

He had his ticket after an hour, and has already booked his hotel and transportation.

Like their counterparts in the U.S., Swift fans in Asia have complained about bots and scalpers. If it weren’t for them, Khan said, “more real fans would be able to buy the concert tickets.”

Fans shut out from the Singapore presale had another opportunity Friday, when general ticket sales began.

Marine Wu, a 27-year-old student from China, said Friday that she had been “tossing and turning since last night” because she was so nervous.

“I don’t want to miss this opportunity to see her,” she said.

When she succeeded, Wu said, she was so excited that she “ran around my house twice.”

“I think the reason why she is so popular around the world, not only in America but also in Asia, is because of her original musical authenticity,” said Lee Yongwoo, an assistant professor in cultural studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Lee praised Swift’s composition and songwriting skills.

“Her songs are unique, and she is a storyteller that tells stories resonating with people.”

Even Pita Limjaroenrat, Thailand’s leading candidate for prime minister, declared himself a Swiftie, inviting the singer to return to the country where her sold-out concert was called off in 2014 after the military seized power days before.

“Hey Taylor! Big fan of yours,” Pita, the leader of the progressive Move Forward Party, said on Twitter . “Btw, Thailand is back on track to be fully democratic after you had to cancel last time due to the coup. The Thai people have spoken via the election and we all look forward to welcoming you to this beautiful nation of ours!”

Other fans are still holding out hope they’ll have a seat at a show.

Blue Shi, 26, a teacher who lives in China’s Fujian province, joined the Tokyo lottery after failing to get a code to buy tickets in Singapore, and is waiting for the results to be released later this month.

To travel to Japan, she would have to fly several hours and obtain a passport and visa, which she is paying a travel agency to help her with. She would also need to get colleagues to cover for her while she is away.

“Not a problem for me at all,” said Shi, who said she started listening to Swift in junior high school because she was touched by her songs, especially the ones about love. “Having the ticket will empower me to overcome all difficulties.”

Larissa Gao is a fellow on NBC’s Asia Desk, based in Hong Kong.

Zhenzhen Liu is an intern on NBC’s Asia Desk in Hong Kong.

Taylor Swift Kicks Off Asia Tour With $230 Million Japan Impact

(Bloomberg) -- Taylor Swift resumes her Eras Tour in Tokyo this week, with spending on tickets, merchandise, food, hotels and other related activities on track to total an estimated ¥34 billion ($230 million).

That number, calculated by Mitsumasa Etoh, a lecturer at Tokyo City University, is roughly the same amount that Swifties generated in Denver in July. Swift, who won the Grammy Award for album of the year on Sunday, has grabbed headlines throughout the US leg of her tour, from setting off seismic sensors in Seattle to becoming a billionaire .

While the first leg of the tour sparked wild fanfare, she’s likely to receive a more muted reception in Japan. That’s because the country has a mature ¥300 billion music industry where popular domestic artists such as Yoasobi and Radwimps make up 90% of CDs, DVDs and other physical media. These days, fans in the country tend to focus on hit songs, rather than foreign artists themselves, according to Ryo Hirose , a researcher at NLI Research Institute.

“Japanese people listen to a limited number of mega hit tunes in English,” Hirose said.

The Asia leg of Taylor’s tour kicks off on Wednesday with the first of four planned shows, although it’s the last, on Saturday, that’s causing the biggest stir. She’s widely expected to fly to Las Vegas after that concert to watch her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, play in the Super Bowl. After a flurry of online speculation about if she’d be able make the long trip in time, the Japanese embassy in Washington stepped in to assure fans that, thanks to the 17-hour time difference, it would be possible.

Read More: Want to Follow Swift and Kelce Next Weekend? It’ll Cost $119,000

Tokyo remains an attractive tour stop for many popular Western artists, welcoming Coldplay, Billy Joel, John Mayer, Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran in recent months. It’s also a relatively affordable gig for fans, thanks to Japan’s restrictions on resale prices. A standard ticket for the Eras concert costs ¥22,800, the same price for a seat to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers play in May.

Read More: Taylor Swift Fans Learn Hard Lessons in Supply and Demand

Swift’s economic effect in Japan is considerably bigger than other visiting artists and most Japanese acts, according to Etoh. “To have such an impact over four days and to attract such a large number of people to Tokyo is an impressive feat,” he said.

For that, Taylor Swift can thank superfans like Sae Aida, 28, who bought VIP tickets for all four concert days, spent more than ¥200,000 on merchandise and bought a new iPhone and camera to record the occasion.

“We’re desperate to see her in person,” Aida said.

--With assistance from Phoebe Sedgman.

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Taylor Swift’s Singapore Concert Sparks Tourism Boom in Southeast Asia

Peden Doma Bhutia , Skift

December 24th, 2023 at 8:00 AM EST

For an events-led tourism destination like Singapore, the Taylor Swift concert has been music to the coffers, errr… ears!

Peden Doma Bhutia

Taylor Swift may be singing, “You Need to Calm Down,” but fans in Asia aren’t listening. The singer’s highly anticipated Singapore tour in March is stirring up a travel storm in Southeast Asia. 

Data analysis by travel technology company Amadeus reveals a substantial increase in travel searches for Singapore, the singer’s only stop in the region.

Asians are now willing to pay top dollar to travel and attend such shows. “We saw over half a million fans in the queue spending more than $1,200 on bundles, including a pair of tickets and a hotel stay,” said Sarah Wan, Klook’s general manager for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Surge in Searches

When the pre-sale went live in July, Agoda saw a surge in searches from Thailand for accommodations — more than 100 times the normal search volume. It made Thailand the top country searching for stays in Singapore that day, followed by Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, which all saw large increases.

Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern wrote on LinkedIn, “Taylor Swift has all but sold out her six Singapore shows. It’s quite the event.”

Another big show is Coldplay in January. CEO and founder of Zuzu Hospitality , Vikram Malhi, said his hotel partners in Singapore are experiencing four to five times higher booking numbers during those times. 

According to Amadeus, Singapore experienced an 18% average week-over-week growth in travel searches, attributed to Taylor Swift and Coldplay concert announcements. Shorter trips and weekend getaways were preferred by travelers during this period.

Klook said that when tourists attend a concert or event, their incremental in-destination spending can range from 4 to 5 times the face value of the ticket.

One target demographic driving this demand are Millenials and Gen Zs, who crave big lifetime experiences. “Our Klook Travel Pulse survey found that experiences are now the first consideration factor when planning a holiday, and we’re seeing this translate to how people look at experiences to shape their travel plans and itineraries,” Wan said.

What’s Driving Demand?

The Singapore Tourism Board supported AEG Presents Asia in bringing Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour to Singapore as the only stop in Southeast Asia. It said it has been working closely with event organizers to bring in high-quality leisure events that appeal to locals and visitors.

“Singapore’s strategic location as the gateway to Southeast Asia and strong fundamentals — our infrastructure, connectivity to the region, business culture and track record in delivering high-quality events — make us a suitable destination for hosting events,” said Ashlynn Loo, director, attractions, entertainment & tourism concept development at the Singapore Tourism Board.

Malhi said Singapore’s world-class infrastructure, boasting of one of the best airports and an extensive public transport network, makes it easily accessible for both event organizers and attendees.

Upsell Tourism Products

According to Klook’s Wan, this is just scratching the surface. The tour opens up an entirely new growth segment beyond music tourism , into mega events including concerts, festivals, and major sporting events.

Wan noted that destinations have yet to effectively upsell tourism products with these mega events, and travelers have to purchase individual elements separately.

According to Wan, the bundling of offerings on a platform, rather than selling separate tickets, holds potential in providing a seamless booking and entertainment experience and increasing tourism spending within a destination.

Offering a package that comprises concert tickets and hotel accommodations attracted more than 600,000 fans from within the region to compete for packages that were eventually sold out, noted Malhi.

“Evidently, fans are willing to travel and spend on experiences , which include concerts and events. This is especially true for the younger generation as their travel planning is purpose-driven in search of great experiences,” Malhi said.

The Labor Problem

Singapore has witnessed a surge in music tourism, but the industry has a significant challenge — a labor shortage.

Dong Limin, responsible for tourism human capital and sustainability at the Singapore Tourism Board, said the board has been taking proactive measures to address this workforce scarcity by collaborating with industry stakeholders and key organizations, including the National Trades Union Congress, Employment and Employability Institute, Workforce Singapore, and SkillsFuture Singapore. 

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Photo credit: Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour will be traveling to Singapore in March. Paolo Villanueva / Wikimedia Commons

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Taylor Swift's Singapore leg spurs bad blood in SE Asia. Neighbors can't shake it off

Sherisse Pham

Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at the National Stadium on March 2 in Singapore. Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Mana hide caption

Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at the National Stadium on March 2 in Singapore.

HONG KONG — Pop star Taylor Swift is in Singapore this week, performing six sold-out shows in the city state. But the concerts — and what the government did to secure them — have sparked some bad blood between Singapore and neighboring Southeast Asian countries and territories.

Singapore this week confirmed it negotiated a deal with Swift's concert promoters, paying an undisclosed sum of money to ensure that Singapore was her only stop in the region.

Rumors of the exclusive deal had sparked outcry among Southeast Asian neighbors, with a Philippine lawmaker demanding an explanation, Thailand's prime minister claiming Singapore paid millions of dollars per concert for the deal, and Hong Kong's chief executive insisting his city was still an attractive destination for mega events.

Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, defended the exclusive deal at a press conference on Tuesday.

"A deal was reached. And so it has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don't see that as being unfriendly," he said at an Asian summit in Melbourne.

Lee added that an "incentive" had been paid for the deal. The Singapore Tourism Board declined to comment on the amount, citing business confidentiality. AEG Presents, Swift's concert promoter, did not respond to a request for comment.

Following Lee's remarks, Philippine lawmaker Joey Salceda told a local newspaper that Singapore was operating by "the law of the jungle" and not the law of a "neighborhood of countries bound by supposed principles of solidarity and consensus."

Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines typically enjoy smooth diplomatic relations. They are all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN , a regional economic and security bloc.

Underneath the heated rhetoric is a growing industry worth billions of dollars. Event tourism — like Swift's concerts — brings in a lot of money for cities. Research firm Business Markets Insights expects the Asia Pacific events market to grow to nearly 550 billion dollars by 2028.

Fans of singer Taylor Swift take pictures next to an installation in the "Eras Tour Trail" that depicts different eras of the pop star's career, at the Marina Bay Sands complex in Singapore, on Feb. 28. More than 300,000 Swifties from Singapore and neighboring countries will attend the U.S. superstar's six sold-out Eras Tour shows at the National Stadium from March 2-9. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Fans of singer Taylor Swift take pictures next to an installation in the "Eras Tour Trail" that depicts different eras of the pop star's career, at the Marina Bay Sands complex in Singapore, on Feb. 28. More than 300,000 Swifties from Singapore and neighboring countries will attend the U.S. superstar's six sold-out Eras Tour shows at the National Stadium from March 2-9.

"Event tourism is a key trend," said Erica Tay, an economist in Singapore with Malaysia-based Malayan Banking Berhad, or Maybank.

Younger travelers crave experiences, more than stuff, and are more likely to travel to a city to attend a concert or watch a sporting event, she said. "By hosting Taylor Swift and other A-list acts, I think Singapore is building its credentials to be an event tourism hub," she added.

Tay estimates Swift's concerts will bring in $370 million in tourism receipts to the country

in a little over a week, while the pop star is in town.

When nearby cities see the multimillion dollar boost they are missing out on, it prompts some soul searching.

Last month, Hong Kong's chief executive, John Lee, was asked by reporters about Singapore's efforts to get Swift, and whether Hong Kong is being ambitious enough when it comes to securing mega events.

"We know we'll be competing with different cities. And we'll ensure we're attractive enough and competitive enough," he said.

Until that happens, Hong Kong is losing out on fans spending big bucks to see performers like Coldplay , Ed Sheeran and now Taylor Swift — top acts that skipped Hong Kong, but played in Singapore.

Husband and wife Haseeb Khan and Audie Wibowo paid about $450 each for their Swift tickets, plus another $300 each for flights from Hong Kong. They plan to stay with family in Singapore.

Taylor Swift fans, known as a Swifties, take photos as they arrive for the first of the pop star's six sold-out Eras Tour concerts at the National Stadium in Singapore on March 2. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Taylor Swift fans, known as a Swifties, take photos as they arrive for the first of the pop star's six sold-out Eras Tour concerts at the National Stadium in Singapore on March 2.

"I think it's totally worth it," said Khan. "It's Taylor Swift, it's like a once-in-a-generation tour."

Wibowo, a self-described long-time Swiftie, said she has never traveled so far for a music concert before, but was determined to go to one of Swift's Singapore shows.

Code Switch

What taylor swift's icon status says about who gets to be a 'girl'.

"Even if my family wasn't there, my friends weren't there, if we didn't have anything in Singapore to go to, we would still go," she said.

It was a similar story for 13-year-old Anoushka and her mom Neha Malik. Malik used loyalty points for their flights from Hong Kong to Singapore, to offset the steep price they paid of about $750 per ticket.

The short-lived 'Barbie' controversy in the Philippines

"It is a big splurge, but it's kind of like birthday, Christmas, everything rolled into one," she said. "Better to have one big memory which will last forever."

Getting nearby Swifties to fly in and splurge on her concerts is exactly what Singapore officials wanted.

Beyond an economic boost, there's also the reputational lift Swift's presence brings.

"Her endorsement of Singapore, you know, will really put the country on the map for hundreds of millions of her fans," said Tay, the economist.

"It's hard to put a value on it, but I think it's really positive."

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Taylor Swift Singapore concert: ticket prices, venue, getting there & where to stay

We’re six months into 2023, and it looks as though our neighbours across the Causeway will most likely become the entertainment capital of Southeast Asia this year. If the announcement of six sold-out Coldplay shows wasn’t enough to cement that fact, then Singapore being the only destination in the Southeast Asian region to host American country-pop superstar Taylor Swift and her upcoming concert definitely will.

The Pennsylvania-born singer-songwriter has embarked on her sixth concert tour internationally since March of this year, kicking off the first leg of the Eras Tour dates in the state of Arizona, United States. Needless to say, the shows have since been met with universal praise from all quarters of the entertainment industry for both Taylor’s showmanship and production quality, translating to unprecedented demand for tickets.

In fact, the Eras Tour even broke Ticketmaster’s record for the most amount of tickets sold by a single artist in a day, at 2.4 million! And now it looks as though the same can be expected of Singapore, where Taylor will be playing for a whopping six nights before heading over to Australia. Here’s everything you need to know about the Taylor Swift Singapore concert dates.

Taylor Swift Singapore concert details 

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Singapore will be held at the Singapore National Stadium, as is the case with most major concerts, in March of 2024 on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, and 9th.

An exclusive pre-sale event was held on 5th July 2023 for UOB cardholders, while the general sale will be held on 7th July 2023. Citibank card holders are also entitled to the pre-sale, as the company’s operations are due to be absorbed by UOB this year.

This marks her second time performing in Singapore since The 1989 World Tour back in 2015. Ticket prices are as follows:

Cat 6 – SGD $108 (MYR 371.26) Cat 5 – SGD $168 (MYR 577.52) Cat 4 – SGD $248 (MYR 852.99) Cat 3 – SGD $288 (MYR 990.57) Cat 2 – SGD $328 (MYR 1,127.66) Cat 1 – SGD $348 (MYR 1,196.45) 

For those who will be purchasing their tickets through the General Sale that is due to begin on July 7th at 12.00PM Singapore/Malaysia time, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Head to the link sent to your email at the designated time.
• Stick to using one device, one browser, and keeping only one tab open. Having multiple tabs open at the ticketing site may result in errors.
• Enter your unique code when prompted. If any errors crop up, please follow the instructions that were sent via email titled “How to Access the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour On-Sale”.
• Once you’ve entered your code, you’ll join a Virtual Queue. Please keep in mind that where you place in the Waiting Room before does not determine your position in the Virtual Queue. Do NOT  refresh your browser once you have entered the Virtual Queue, or you will be pushed all the way to the back!
• Each account/code is only entitled to four (4) tickets.
• Tickets are  incredibly limited, so access to the site doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to purchase your tickets as they are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis while stocks last.
• For a ‘swift’ checkout experience, be sure to have your credit card details on hand.

How can you get to the Taylor Swift Singapore concert from Malaysia?

In most cases, Malaysians heading to Singapore may opt to do so by driving their own private vehicles across the Causeway. Those looking to do so can travel through the Johor Bahru checkpoint leading into Woodlands, or the Tuas Second Link from Tanjung Kupang leading into Tuas. But bear in mind that with scarce parking at the concert venue, you may want to switch to public transport upon arrival to head to the concert venue.

By bus 

Of course, if you’d rather leave the monotony of driving down the North-South Expressway to a professional, you could always book yourself a bus ticket to head down into Singapore. And where that’s concerned, you’ll be spoiled for choice as a number of bus companies offer routes between both countries on a daily basis such as Causeway Link .

Alternatively, you could splurge a little more and book a seat on the Aeroline express bus service, which offers more space and comfort. Round-trip tickets cost MYR 256.00 if bought in Malaysia.

On average, a bus ride from KL to Singapore takes anywhere between five to six hours, depending on traffic.

Not the default choice for most people travelling to Singapore from Malaysia, but if you’d like to take the train, you could do so via KTM. But bear in mind that there are no direct routes available between both countries, so you’ll need to purchase separate tickets for every leg of the journey.

This spans from KL to Gemas, Gemas to Johor Bahru, and Johor Bahru to Woodlands Checkpoint. The average train ride from KL to Singapore takes nine hours.

If you’d like to get to Singapore as quickly as possible, then flying there makes the most sense as the trip will take no more than an hour and ten minutes. Major budget carriers in the region offer tickets between both KLIA and Changi International Airport, including AirAsia ,  FireFlyz , and  Scoot .

Where to stay and how to get to the Taylor Swift Singapore concert venue?

Where to stay 

As is the case with Coldplay and other major acts, Taylor Swift is set to perform at the National Stadium in Singapore, which is located in Kallang. Bearing that in mind, here are a few hotels that you could check into if you’d like to avoid a lengthy commute to the venue on the day of the concert itself.

1. Swissôtel The Stamford

Swissôtel The Stamford is a five-star establishment located along Stamford Road.

Book your stay here

2. Fairmont Singapore

The Fairmont Singapore is a five-star establishment located along Bras Basah Road.

3. Conrad Centennial Singapore

The Conrad Centennial Singapore is a five-star establishment located along Temasek Boulevard.

4. Carlton Hotel Singapore

The Carlton Hotel Singapore is a four-star establishment located along Bras Basah Road.

5. PARKROYAL On Beach Road

The PARKROYAL On Beach Road is a four-star establishment located along Beach Road.

How to get to the concert venue

Assuming that you’re travelling via Bus 11, alight at Stadium Station (80199). If you’re travelling via Bus 10, 14, 16, 16M, 70, 196, alight at National Stadium (80219) or Opposite National Stadium (80211).

For those taking the MRT to the concert venue, the closest station to alight from would be the Stadium MRT Station (CC6) on the Circle Line.

But you can also alight from either the Mountbatten MRT Station (CC7) or Kallang MRT Station (EW10) too. Both are approximately 600m away on foot from the Singapore Sports Hub.

Feature and hero image credits: taylorswift/Instagram

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Answer: Singapore will be the only stop that Taylor Swift is expected to make as part of the Southeast Asian leg of her Eras Tour.

Answer: Taylor Swift is expected to perform a total of six dates in Singapore for her Eras Tour. The concert will span 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, and 9th March 2024.

Answer: Taylor Swift will perform her Eras Tour concert in Singapore at the National Stadium.

Answer: Tickets for the Taylor Swift concert in Singapore start from SGD $108 (MYR 371.26) and top out at SGD $348 (MYR 1,196.45).

Benjamin Wong

Armed with an Advertising major from Lancaster University, Benjamin is a senior editor who has spent his time oscillating between the social media and digital media landscape since 2018. With a keen interest in fashion and good living, he has written for publications such as ERROR Digital, WORLD OF BUZZ, and KL Foodie. Beyond the keyboard, you can find him arms-deep in a thrift pile.

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European cities hope jet-setting Taylor Swift fans will splash the cash for Eras tour

The superstar arrives in Europe next month – and Swifties, tourist boards and venues are already preparing

T im Brown, 44, and his wife, Marcella, 34, may not consider themselves bona fide “Swifties”, but when it was announced last June that Taylor Swift would be visiting their corner of the globe this summer they could not resist joining the scramble for a pair of tickets.

A post-pandemic appetite for live music events has fuelled huge worldwide interest in the American singer-songwriter’s Eras tour, which surpassed in $1bn sales in November to become the highest-grossing series of concerts in history.

The pop culture event of the summer will arrive in Europe next month, kicking off in Paris on 9 May and wrapping up in London on 20 August with 49 dates in between in Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The unique nature of the tour’s ticketing system, which was tweaked after a number of hitches last year, means there will be a mass movement of travelling fans who will not only be Swiftie in affiliation but swift-like in their willingness to travel across the continent.

In expectation of intense demand, Ticketmaster introduced a pre-registration system that rewarded some early applicants with access codes to the ticket sale proper, via staggered windows for each city.

Notionally designed to prioritise genuine fans over “scalpers” – people who buy and resell tickets for a quick profit – the pre-sales system also meant many fans registered for tickets in multiple destinations across Europe to increase their chances.

Tim and Marcella, who live in Norwich, registered not just for the nearest concerts – in London and Liverpool – but also in Amsterdam and Lisbon. The pair got lucky with a pair of €91 tickets in the Portuguese capital and have turned the trip into a weekend break. “I used to live in Lisbon so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone,” Tim said. “We booked ourselves flights and four nights’ accommodation the same day.” They are far from alone.

Katie Soo, the chief business officer of DICE, a rival ticketing company, said: “The excitement and uncertainty inherent in the ticket-purchasing process might have inadvertently incentivised fans to apply for tickets in multiple cities, thereby increasing the likelihood of travelling across Europe to attend the concerts.”

Hotel prices

Several European cities have already reported a sharp rise in demand for hotel and short-term rental accommodation over the summer, when the Swift hurricane will arrive. In Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, rooms at the Travelodge chain around Swift’s June dates have been sold out since August 2023, a month after tickets for the shows went on sale.

In Paris, where fans anticipate Swift to debut an updated version of the Eras show with songs from the new Tortured Poets Department album, 80% of hotels and apartments listed on Booking.com are already full up. In Warsaw on 2 August, only 9% of hotels listed on the same site are still available.

Not all of the 18 cities covered by the Eras tour are obvious tourism destinations. From 17-19 July, Swift will play three concerts at the 65,000-capacity home ground of the football club Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen in Ruhr valley, western Germany. The city’s less-than-familiar name prompted one US chatshow host to quip that “the place might not even exist”.

Yet even in Germany’s rust belt the influx of Swift fans is temporarily transforming the hotel market: any two-bedroom apartments that remain available are going for €800-2,000 a night, with cheaper accommodation available only in surrounding cities that are just as off the usual tourist track as Gelsenkirchen, such as Essen, Bochum or Herne.

Cities with stricter rules on allowing Airbnb-style holiday lets and a more limited stock of short-term rental apartments are reporting a particularly marked increase in rates during Swift’s visit, with about 30% year-on-year spikes in rental rates in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Milan, according to AirDNA, a data analytics company specialising in the short-term rentals market.

Of all the tour’s European stops, Vienna is experiencing the most notable impact on its rental market, with booking rates for the nights of Swift’s concerts recorded in February 44% higher than at the same point the previous year. By the end of March the number of nights booked in the Austrian capital for the length of Swift’s stay in the second week of August had risen by 430% compared with the same period in 2023.

When Luke Tilden’s wife, Tatjana, suggested last summer that the couple buy their 13- and 15-year-old daughters, Lena and Maya, tickets to a Taylor Swift gig for Christmas, the 53-year-old Briton initially waved it off. “There’s no chance in hell we’d get a ticket without paying through our noses, I thought,” said Tilden, who works as an interpreter at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

But after pre-registering for tickets in London, Paris and Munich, the Tildens got unexpectedly lucky for four tickets in southern Germany and have turned the concert visit into a mini-holiday: “We’ll visit the in-laws in Bavaria, enjoy the countryside, do a bit of hiking.”

The hope in cities across Europe is that this will be replicated on a massive scale, with fans’ excitement translating into generous spending sprees on food, shopping and leisure. In Stockholm, for example, where authorities are expecting 159,000 visitors to arrive from 135 countries in mid-May, the chamber of commerce has forecast a spending boost of €50m. “We hope the whole town will buzz from the Eras tour,” said Tomas Andersson, a spokesperson for the Swedish capital’s tourism board.

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Whether fans will necessarily act like ordinary tourists, however, is up for debate. “Pop-culture tourists do not necessarily care about traditional buildings and authentic restaurants,” said Maria Lexhagen, a professor at the European Tourism Research Institute, Mid Sweden University.

“Joining up with other fan communities is stronger motivation, as is the idea that they might get closer to the stars themselves. Many of them will map out where Swift is spending her time in the city – they will seek out seemingly marginal but meaningful places like back alleys or coffee shops.” Venues may be hoping for a repeat of Sydney in February, when Swift swept into an unassuming Italian restaurant in the suburbs and sent its name into global media headlines.

In Stockholm the tourism board said it was expecting bookshops and secondhand clothes stores, rather than museums and royal palaces, to attract most of the arriving visitors. Some venues are being proactive: one restaurant within walking distance of the multipurpose Friends Arena in the Solna municipality is putting on a “Taylor Swift brunch experience” with a karaoke stage; the waterfront nightclub Debaser is hosting a pre-concert party on 16 May, an all-ages all-day party with a Swift-themed quiz on 19 May and an afterparty the day after.

Environment

As the Swift circus rolls across the continent, the transport infrastructure of urban centres will also be put to the test. Around the tour’s three-night stop in Dublin at the end of June, Irish Rail has announced additional late-night services to Cork and Limerick to meet an expected increase in demand. Extra tram and bus services are likely to be announced nearer the time.

Unlike rail operators, most airlines do not have capacity to charter additional flights. Due to yield management – airlines adjusting prices based on expected demand – a scramble for airborne journeys into cities that host the Eras tour is more likely to result in more expensive tickets rather than additional flights.

Officials at Lisbon airport said no additional flights had been chartered around Swift’s concerts on 24 and 25 May but that demand would probably be reflected in slightly higher load factors. A spokesperson for Amsterdam Schiphol said general aviation slots could be requested at short notice but nothing out of the ordinary had been logged so far.

Calculating the environmental impact of the tour with any certainty was difficult, experts said. “We can expect that some Swift fans will travel a long way to see one, if not several, shows across Europe”, said Stefan Gössling, a professor of tourism at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden. “But measuring the environmental impact of these trips is extremely difficult – it would involve a lot of guesswork.”

This did not mean the carbon footprint was negligible. “Every flight taken by a person adds to demand and hence influences supply considerations,” Gössling said. “The greater the demand, the more aircrafts are in service.”

The pop star’s carbon footprint is easier to estimate. Swift owns two jets by the French manufacturer Dassault, whose journeys are trackable. During the 2023 leg of the Eras tour, Swift’s planes spent 166 hours crisscrossing the US in about 75 individual journeys, though it is possible they were used by people other than the singer.

According to data available through the open-access aviation tracker ADS-B exchange, Swift’s jets caused carbon emissions of about 2,830 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent over the course of the US Eras tour – about 1,700 times the annual contribution of an average person.

A spokesperson for Swift told US media last year that in advance of the tour’s start in March 2023, the pop star bought more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel. Carbon offset credits are tradable certificates that allow purchasers to compensate for emissions by investing in environmental projects that claim to reduce carbon emissions, though recent studies have questioned the efficacy of these schemes.

Additional reporting by Ajit Niranjan

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How not to fall foul of the ticket scammers catching out Taylor Swift fans

Huge demand for gig tickets is driving more people to secondary selling sites – and straight into the clutches of greedy touts

When Taylor Swift ’s Eras Tour arrives in Britain in just a few months’ time, it won’t just be one of the most eagerly awaited concert series ever, but a record-breaking one, too; it’s now the first music tour to surpass $1 billion (£800 million) in revenue. And, as any Swifties will know if they’ve watched the concert film, it’s an absolutely brilliant show, too.

Just imagine being there and seeing it for yourself though.

Problem is, this sheer fear of missing out is driving more and more people to secondary selling sites in their desperate search for tickets. 

And don’t the touts – and more brazen scammers – know it. This week, Lloyds Banking Group has issued a warning to fans, saying that more than 600 of its customers that tried to buy tickets for the Eras Tour between July 2023 and March 2024 have come forward to report being scammed . The average amount lost by each victim was £332, though in some cases the loss was more than £1,000. More than £1 million has been lost to fraudsters so far.

Though it’s perfectly legal for sites to resell tickets for events such as gigs and concerts, as long as the sale abides by consumer protection laws, they can clearly be open to abuse. Search StubHub for three tickets together for Swift’s show at Wembley on Friday June 21 and the staggering total price is £72,304.80. Look what you made me do, indeed.

That, incredibly, is a more than 14,000 per cent mark-up on tickets with a face value of £170 each. 

Now, it’s possible that this extreme example is one person trying their luck. Supply and demand, and all that. It’s also likely, say industry insiders, that such an obviously ridiculous price won’t be met. What’s more troubling, though, is the sheer amount of tickets available for that show via market-leading secondary ticket sales site Viagogo , ranging from £784 for a restricted-view £49 seat to £4,737 for a £170 seat.

It’s these tickets that are the tip of the iceberg for what Adam Webb calls an “off the charts” ticket-touting operation which is making some people very rich indeed. 

Webb is the campaign manager for FanFair Alliance, a music campaign group backed by some big names in music – and politics – who have been working since 2016 to try to sort out the “horror show” that was and remains the secondary sales market. 

They show me evidence that the UK’s dominant secondary sales websites remain dependent on high-volume touts, many of whom acquire tickets unlawfully and commit fraud.

There have been some successes along the way, including the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) enforcing more transparency on the sites. In early April, a touting operation selling £6.5 million-worth of tickets on secondary-sales sites including Viagogo was convicted for fraudulent trading.

But it got to the stage last year where FanFair Alliance believed that the only real way to ensure fans get to see the acts they love is to advocate for legislation on banning ticket resale for profit – which is already in force in Ireland.

And that’s because the sheer scale of touting using sophisticated techniques is destroying the primary sale market. Organised groups of touts from this country and around the world – criminal gangs, to be frank – are using software and AI to prioritise their purchases, which they then sell on for a huge mark-up on secondary sites. 

Webb introduces me to Reg Walker, founder of The Iridium Consultancy, which operates in the private security sector for live events. He has nearly four decades of experience combating ticket touts, and regularly scours millions of lines of ticket data to understand the tactics that are now in place.

“Even as recently as 2007, you were looking at about 150 touts in the UK,” he says. “Now, it’s between 3,000 and 5,000. We infiltrated one group, and for £99 a month you could get access to highly aggressive software which used queue-jumping technology. So when Beyoncé went on sale, they generated 800,000 electronic placeholders, smashed the whole primary sale system to bits, and jumped them to the front of the queue.

“We’ve been warning for several years that unless something was done, you would lose the ability to sell tickets to the public at face value. I think we’re at that tipping point now.”

Webb demonstrates that if you type “Taylor Swift tickets” into Google, the first two hits are secondary selling sites. Then he shows me what Reg Walker unequivocally calls an “illegal touting operation running in plain sight”.

In 2018, the CMA secured a court order against Viagogo requiring it to show actual seat numbers rather than just rows and blocks, to try to combat the speculative selling practices – where traders sell tickets they don’t yet own but will attempt to secure. They also have to show the original face value, who the seller is and even if they are a “trader” – for Viagogo, someone who sells more than 100 tickets a year. 

“The traders are ticket touts, not fans,” says Webb. Indeed, the CMA’s findings during the merger investigation of Viagogo and StubHub in the UK found that for both parties “the largest resellers account for the majority of their sales”. 

And in 2020, it was revealed that secondary selling sites offer “inventory managers”, a suite of online tools and portals available to people who sell multiple tickets, allowing them to clone their listings. “This is how organised it is,” says Webb. “We also know the biggest suppliers will also be able to trade on more preferable terms, paying less in fees than consumers.” 

Still, the CMA order might initially make buying from a secondary seller feel a bit more transparent and reassuring – regulated even. If you have £800 to spare, then perhaps you might go for it – even if the names and addresses and companies of the traders can be behind multiple clicks, PO boxes and unidentifiable names. The CMA has warned StubHub in the past for “failing to take sufficient steps to ensure that the full addresses of business sellers are displayed”.

“We’ve seen one called Mickey Mouse,” laughs Walker. “Honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up.”

“But check the small print at the top here,” adds Webb. “‘Resale of tickets is prohibited for this event. Please note your ticket may be invalid for entry to the event’.” 

For its part, StubHub later said: “We have a long history of collaborating with regulators in the interests of our fans and will continue to support measures that promote a secure, transparent, and competitive ticket marketplace. We encourage any ongoing regulatory discussions to be comprehensive.”

When a seller places a ticket on a secondary site, the tickets are all theoretically invalid as soon as they are listed or sold.

We check this with the promoter, AEG Presents, and it confirms that it has official resale facilities through approved channels (not Viagogo), which cap prices.

“Any tickets found to be purchased via resale on the non-official secondary market will not be valid for entry into the concerts and will be cancelled in accordance with the terms and conditions of sale,” says a spokesman.

So I ask Viagogo why it is listing Swift tickets at all, given that it admits in its small print that customers may excitedly arrive at Wembley Stadium in June and not be allowed in.

“Viagogo is fully compliant in all markets in which the business operates – ticket resale is legal in the UK,” says a spokesman.

“When purchasing tickets to any live event on Viagogo, the site will inform buyers if the event prohibits the resale of tickets in accordance with regulations set out by the CMA.

“Less than 0.02 per cent of tickets encounter an issue at the door and the Viagogo guarantee ensures buyers will be offered a refund in the rare instance that an issue arises.”

So, even if it were easy to get a refund, anyone buying a ticket at a hugely inflated price via Viagogo is still, effectively, gambling that the promoter or venue won’t have the resources to police or enforce their T&Cs.

“At Ed Sheeran, we did have the resources,” says Walker. “I was the architect of his anti-touting strategy; we scrubbed all the data, cancelled thousands of tickets, they went back on sale again, the touts bought them again and then at the venue people were being turned away with tickets from Viagogo.

“What we did in that instance is hold tickets back and resold at face value to fans who couldn’t get in – but if you keep doing that, it’s commercially incredibly disruptive. When you see these kids being turned away, it’s heartbreaking – there’s a very real human cost.”

Sharon Hodgson MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse, says: “My office is regularly contacted by victims of the parasitic secondary ticketing market.”

Hodgson is worth listening to when it comes to ticket touting, not least because she has been at the forefront of changing policy on ticketing for over 15 years. “It all started for me when my daughter was trying to get tickets for Take That .

“They’d all sold out, and when I told her to try a Google search, she was in disbelief about how much they were. It was then the penny dropped this wasn’t people buying tickets and realising later that day they couldn’t go. They were selling them deliberately to make a huge profit from fans. And as a politician, that immediate unfairness started me off.”

In the years that have followed, Hodgson has tried to introduce a private members’ bill, had questions at PMQs, issued reports and worked with the CMA. In fact, in the House of Lords at the moment there are further amendments to the Consumer Rights Act, which limit the resale of tickets to the amount you can legitimately buy, as well as giving the platforms the liability for the listings.

Last week, the Labour Party made a commitment to end online ticket touting should it be elected. But Hodgson is keen to emphasise this isn’t a party political issue.

“The APPG was first co-chaired by Michael Weatherley , the late Conservative MP for Hove, and we led the work on this up to the Consumer Rights Act, with great help from Lord Moynihan. He was the hero of the moment, because we couldn’t get anything through the Commons, but we could get the amendments to the bill in the Lords. The former Conservative MP Nigel Adams was great in getting legislation through on making ticket bots illegal.

“It’s amazing, over the past 15 years, everyone has come round to the realisation that the only way to deal with ticket touting is to take the profit out of it. Secondary selling sites won’t like it, but I would say to them that they’d still have the opportunity to charge a flat fee for a ticket exchange system. But they won’t be interested in that because it’s the percentages on the huge mark-ups that make them their money.”

For now, though, how do you go about getting a ticket for a big, in-demand concert tour?

“Well, don’t use Google, as it’ll signpost you to a secondary sales site,” says Webb.

“Find the artist’s website and look for pre-sales. And then, don’t panic. In nearly all cases in the UK there are mechanisms to buy official tickets from different vendors. There’s also the ability to resell and buy tickets ethically and officially. There’s probably a million tickets in the marketplace for Taylor Swift… not everyone is going to be able to go.” 

And certainly be careful on social media, where ticket scams often involve fake adverts, posts or listings offering tickets or access to events that have already sold out or don’t even exist.

As for those £25,000 tickets, we asked StubHub to clarify why they were on there too. Like Viagogo, it argues that it “facilitates safe transactions, with full visibility (including face-value and transparent all-in pricing), that have allowed fans to access events”. 

For some, then, it’s going to be a very cruel summer.

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Thousands of Taylor Swift fans hit by UK ticket scams: Lloyds

LONDON - Thousands of fans of pop megastar Taylor Swift have been hit by a wave of concert ticket scams ahead of her tour in Britain later in 2024, a British bank said on April 17.

At least 3,000 victims are likely to have been tricked into buying fake tickets since July 2023, with more than £1 million (S$1.7 million) lost to fraudsters so far, Lloyds Bank said.

The average amount lost by each victim was £332, though in some cases it was more than £1,000.

The bank said more than 90 per cent of reported cases started with fake advertisements or posts on Facebook.

Concert ticket scams had risen by 158 per cent since last summer compared with the same period a year earlier, the bank added.

US singer Beyonce, British band Coldplay and musician Harry Styles are the artists most commonly used in the targeting, it noted.

Across all concert ticket scams, victims were losing £133 on average.

A search of Facebook revealed that dozens of unofficial groups had been set up, many with tens of thousands of members, specifically for people looking to buy and sell tickets for Swift concerts, Lloyds said.

Facebook Marketplace, the social media company’s trading platform, has various listings for tickets at venues nationwide, the bank said.

The scams usually involve fake ads, posts or listings on social media, offering tickets at discounted prices, or access to events which have already sold out at inflated prices. Victims are asked to pay up front for the tickets, but once payment is made, the scammers disappear. This leaves the buyer without tickets and out of pocket.

“If you’re being asked to pay by bank transfer, particularly from a seller you’ve found on social media, that should immediately set alarm bells ringing,” said Lloyds Bank fraud prevention director Liz Ziegler.

“Buying directly from reputable, authorised platforms is the only way to guarantee you’re paying for a genuine ticket. Even then, always pay by debit or credit card for the greatest protection.” AFP

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Where to Buy Every Edition of Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ on CD and Vinyl

Each edition includes a bonus track, plus unique album art and accompanying photographs

By Tim Chan

• Where to Find Tickets to Billy Joel’s Sold-Out Residency and Tour Online 17 hours ago
• Where to Buy Every Edition of Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ on CD and Vinyl 1 day ago
• Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden: How to Watch Tonight’s Concert Special On TV and Online for Free 3 days ago

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.

Taylor Swift ‘s new album, “ The Tortured Poets Department ” is due out April 19 but fans can already pre-order the CD and vinyl online now.

Target is offering three exclusive versions of “Tortured Poets Department” on CD and one exclusive vinyl . Each of them features the full 16-track album , plus one bonus track. The Target exclusive also includes a double-sided poster with one side showing a photo of Swift and the side showing her handwritten lyrics. The CD is bundled with a 20-page booklet. Each of the three Target exclusive CDs feature unique album art.

Popular on Variety

The tortured poets department + bonus track “the albatross”.

The first Target edition of “Tortured Poets Department” is dubbed “ The Albatross, ” for the bonus track that is included in this release.

The Tortured Poets Department + Bonus Track “The Bolter”

Swift first teased “The Bolter” edition of “The Tortured Poets Department” during an Eras Tour concert in February. “Look at that cover,” she quipped, of the moody album art. “It’s so tortured, so poetic.”

The Tortured Poets Department + Bonus Track “The Black Dog”

Swift announced the final special edition “Tortured Poets Department” CD during a March concert in Singapore. The album cover features an angsty photo of the singer set against a black and white layout.

The Tortured Poets Department (Phantom Clear LP)

Swift posted a photo to Instagram in April to unveil the “Phantom Clear” vinyl edition, along with the lyrics “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all.” Available exclusively at Target, this “Tortured Poets” vinyl set includes two discs, collectible album art, and a 24-page book-bound jacket with handwritten lyrics and never-before-seen photos of the singer.

The Tortured Poets Department (Ghosted White LP)

Amazon also has Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” vinyl available for pre-order . This “ghosted white” colorway features all 16 songs spread out over two LPs. There is also a bonus track included, titled “The Manuscript.” Sold out on Amazon? This Ghosted White LP is also available at Walmart and on Target.com .

The Tortured Poets Department

“The Manuscript” is also available as a bonus track on the Amazon “Tortured Poets Department” CD release. Get it on sale now by pre-ordering the album before its release. Amazon guarantees that you’ll get the CD for the lowest price between the time you order it and the April 19 release date. You can also find Swift’s new album on CD at Walmart .

Swift first announced her new album during the Grammy Awards earlier this year. Said to have been inspired by her breakup with Joe Alwyn, the album includes tracks with Post Malone, on a song called “Fortnight,” and Florence + the Machine, on a track titled “Florida!!!”

While Swifties are undoubtedly excited about the album release, Swift also got a seal of approval from one very important fan: Travis Kelce has listened to the album and called it “unbelievable.”

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