Why overseas Swifties are willing to spend thousands to catch Taylor Swift in Singapore

For months, we’ve been hearing about how Taylor Swift’s decision to make Singapore the only Southeast Asian stop for her Eras Tour concert is good for the nation. Don’t get me wrong: It is an objectively good decision. A 30 per cent spike in demand for hotels and flights here as well as a potential revenue exceeding US$787 million in economic value are excellent figures by any metric.

However, we don’t really hear about the people who helped make those numbers possible: Overseas fans travelling to Singapore for the Eras Tour.

While Swifties here are spending anywhere between S$88 and S$1,288 (US$958) for concert tickets, overseas fans are spending that amount plus flight fares plus hotel fares plus miscellaneous expenses for the same concert.

And this is assuming everything was done without relying on scalpers