Taylor Swift is plastered all over the Singapore news these days, as she hold her concert in Singapore. One of the main reasons she made the news, other than the hype surrounding her popularity, is that Singapore is her only stop in South-East Asia. Taylor Swift will not perform in any of the other South-East Asian countries, and that is because the Singapore Tourism Board took active steps to make it so.
Background Of Taylor Swift’s Singapore Tour
Thailand’s Prime Minister had informed that Singapore paid between US 2-3 million for each of her 6 shows that she will hold in Singapore. The Singapore Government has in a way addressed this, stating that the amount involved is nowhere near as high as what was speculated online. Whatever the amount is, we do not know and we have no way to verify it. But it is also a fact that the Singapore Tourism Board has worked to bring Taylor Swift in, and Singapore is her only stop in South-East Asia.
Today’s article is to highlight this excellent business decision making by the Singapore Government, and what we can learn from this, regardless of whether we run a business or not. Afterall, if we want to attain financial freedom, we got to learn from the good examples. Success is not a result of random results, but a series of good decisions which increases our probability of success.
Tourism
Singapore is a very small country. It is a place good for earning money but limited in terms of lifestyle and tourism in the traditional sense. We do not have any Mount Fuji here nor Yellowstone National Park here. We do not have artefacts like the Terracotta Army nor the pyramids to show. Neither the natural scenery nor the deep history in this small country. Just to give a sense of how small Singapore is, New Zealand is 350x the size of Singapore. Just one city of China, Beijing, is 26.6x our size. In the traditional sense of tourism, Singapore can be finished in just 3 days with no incentive to come back anymore.
The Singapore Government has therefore made efforts in promoting the tourism away from the traditional sense. From making this country a business-friendly place so that people will often fly in to hold important meetings or to attend to their businesses, to promoting Taylor Swift concerts. Events such as this will draw in crowds who would otherwise have no interests in this country. I have no need to explain in detail the boost in revenue, from accommodation to F&B, from transport (airplanes and local transport) to retail, every sector that a tourist will come across will benefit. In the case of Taylor Swift, the short-term mass influx of tourists has given many sectors their much needed power boost as the short supply had resulted in a spike in prices, which translates to profit at very minimal increase in cost.
Getting Yourself Known
Despite Singaporeans being proud of their own country, having reached from third world to first in just a span of less than 50 years, there are many people who actually do not know where is Singapore. In the workplace, in society, even in the global stage, every entity will need to have some form of influence to impact decisions. Just because we are a small staff in our company does not mean we are contented with 0 influence. Putting our name out there, having just a little bit more of soft power helps. It helps getting things done, it helps letting ourselves be heard, it helps with revenue such as cultural export etc. Just think of how much America has earned from Hollywood, how much South Korea has earned from K-dramas and K-pop, and how much Japan has earned from anime and manga etc. The list goes on. But if people do not know you, then they would not consume your products, and therefore losing yourself market shares which you could earn from.
The news, the TikTok videos, the Instagram and Facebook posts which followed from all the Taylor Swift hype are free advertisement for Singapore, which is worth a lot of money. Countries like Malaysia and Taiwan have been actively promoting their country as a holiday destination overseas. All these advertisement cost money, and none of them are as close to the hearts of people as seeing your goddess influencer introducing the food of the country in her TikTok video, or your friend walking around and taking pictures of the places she visited on Facebook. The quality and quantity of the advertisements are simply different. Without spending a single cent, Singapore has gotten all these advertisements from the masses for free.
Getting Your Ability Recognised
Holding large scale concerts and giving a good experience is something many countries can do. But is also something many countries cannot do well. Imagine holding a Taylor Swift concert in India. One could easily imagine the chaos and the crime rates that would shoot up. A good experience in this case is not only limited to the concert itself, but also the overall experience during the tourists’ stay in Singapore. From event planning to ground security, Singapore once again reminded the world that they are able to take up the task and do it well.
One may also remember that Singapore holds high level meetings such as the US – North Korea talks in 2018, where the Singapore Government had scrambled to plan and assemble everything on short notice. While Taylor Swift is nowhere as important as the North Korean chairman or the United States president, it once again gets the word out to the people out there that we are not rusty and we can get things done.
Throw in our good geographical location and we get an overall somewhat ideal location for big names to hold their concerts or their events here compared to our neighbouring countries. If we compare it down to an individual level, I think I do not need to explain further the significance of an individual staff having his or her ability recognised in the company and by the bosses.
Success Is Relative
There are countries such as Thailand which are obviously upset with Singapore’s decision to negotiate a deal that Singapore is the only stop in South-East Asia for Taylor Swift. Some has said that Singapore has incurred some unfriendliness as a result of this. But unfortunately such is reality. Even in your job applications, you securing a job means the next candidate has lost the opportunity.
Certain things are absolute, such as the temperature of boiling water is unarguably at 100 degrees Celsius. Others like success is relative. For example, in the past only a selected few had a university degree, and those who obtained it were treated with respect and had good career opportunities. However, when educational inflation sets in and everybody has a degree, then there is no difference between you and the next person.
Success is when you have done or obtained what others could not. If Taylor Swift could hold concerts in every country of South-East Asia and had done so, then all the things that we mentioned above would have been given a big discount.
It is not enough that we should succeed. Others must fail.
Conclusion
The above are just some of the points which I can easily see regarding Singapore’s deal with Taylor Swift. Despite what some naysayers may say, I believe this is a very good business decision. And it is something we can learn from. Success has to be grabbed and fought for with our own 2 hands. Success is not handed over on a plate to us.
