SINGAPORE: Singapore’s economy was boosted by a “surge in tourism activity” in the first quarter of 2024 due to concerts by British rock band Coldplay and American pop star Taylor Swift, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Friday (Apr 26).
Both acts played at the 55,000-capacity National Stadium – Singapore’s largest stadium – with Coldplay’s concerts taking place in January and Swift’s shows happening in March.
“These concerts took place over 12 days in total, with more than half the audience likely coming from abroad,” MAS said in its latest macroeconomic review, which is released twice a year.
Coldplay sold more than 200,000 tickets to their initial four shows in Singapore, while more than 300,000 tickets to Swift’s concerts were snapped up.
According to statistics from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), there were 4,353,500 international visitor arrivals in the first three months of the year. That is a 50 per cent increase from the same period last year and a 26 per cent increase from the last quarter of 2023.
Singapore’s economy grew 2.7 per cent in the first quarter of the year from the same period a year ago. In the last quarter of 2023, the economy grew 2.2 per cent.
The growth in the first quarter was despite a pullback in manufacturing activity, with the biomedicals and electronics clusters posting weak growth.
Activity in the modern services cluster was also dampened, primarily because of the finance and insurance sector, MAS said.
The large-scale concerts could have generated tourism receipts of between S$350 million (US$257 million) to S$450 million, according to estimates by private-sector analysts, MAS noted.
The estimates differed based on assumptions such as the attendees’ length of stay in Singapore.
“This represents a 6 per cent injection above the average quarterly tourism receipts recorded in Q1 to Q3 last year,” the report said. That would have provided a boost to sectors such as air transport, accommodation, arts, retail and more.
MAS pointed out hotel occupancies rose to 80 per cent in the first two months of the year, compared with 77 per cent in the previous quarter.
CNA reported in February that demand for flights and accommodation increased by up to 30 per cent around Swift’s concert dates.
