Hotels, Flights Booked Out as ‘Swift Effect’ Hits Singapore 

US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the first night of the The Eras Tour in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, 16 February 2024. (EPA)
US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the first night of the The Eras Tour in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, 16 February 2024. (EPA)
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Hotels, Flights Booked Out as ‘Swift Effect’ Hits Singapore 

US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the first night of the The Eras Tour in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, 16 February 2024. (EPA)
US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the first night of the The Eras Tour in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, 16 February 2024. (EPA)

The "Swift effect" is about to hit Southeast Asia but Singapore has left some of its neighbors seeing red while it profits from a Taylor-made tourism boom as the star's only stop in the region.

More than 300,000 fans from the city-state and neighboring countries will attend the US superstar's six sold-out Eras Tour shows at the National Stadium from March 2-9.

Ingrid Delgado, a fresh graduate in Manila who is travelling to Singapore for the March 4 show, said she bought a "new shimmering dress" for the occasion but had trouble finding an affordable hotel.

"A lot were booked already, so I had to book a more expensive hotel," she said.

The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts, as well as the Fairmont Hotel, told AFP that demand for rooms during the concert period had risen.

Big spenders have taken up Marina Bay Sands' luxury packages named after Swift's hit songs, such as "Shake it Off" and "Stay Stay Stay".

The hotel's SG$50,000 ($37,230) "Wildest Dreams" package includes VIP tickets, fine dining, a hotel suite, limousine transfers and passes to tourist attractions.

The hotel told AFP all its packages were sold out.

Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines said there had been increased demand for Singapore-bound flights but could not say whether it was solely due to the "Swift Effect".

A large contingent of Malaysian Swifties will be crossing into neighboring Singapore.

"It's a dream come true. I feel excited and nervous," said Harith Arsat, a 20-year-old student who will be making his first overseas trip from Kuala Lumpur.

In the Philippines, budget carrier Cebu Pacific has changed its usual flight number for Singapore-bound planes to "1989" -- the year Swift was born and the title of her fifth album -- for the March 1-9 period.

Red carpet

However, not everyone was happy when Swift's only Southeast Asia stop was announced, including fans and governments in some of Singapore's neighbors.

Travelling to Singapore is expensive for many in the region due to high currency exchanges, to say nothing of ritzy hotel packages.

Some were also unhappy because Singapore provided a grant to help secure Swift's record-breaking tour for the city-state.

Officials from the culture ministry and Singapore Tourism Board, citing business confidentiality, declined to say last week how much was paid, or whether an exclusivity deal had been signed to make Singapore Swift's sole Southeast Asian stop.

That followed reports that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin had told a business forum in Bangkok that Singapore had indeed made such a deal.

The Singapore officials did not address Srettha's comments directly but said Swift's shows were "likely to generate significant benefits to the Singapore economy".

Singapore has been rolling out the red carpet for many international artists, such as Blackpink, Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran, since ending its Covid-19 pandemic curbs.

Coldplay performed six sold-out shows in January and upcoming acts include Bruno Mars, Sum 41 and Jerry Seinfeld.

"Singapore started to open faster than others after the pandemic and its first-mover advantage and concerted efforts to bring in acts, events and conventions has helped," Song Seng Wun, economic adviser for CGS International, told AFP.

"That momentum has been building up."

'Don't lose money swiftly'

Millions scrambled for tickets when they went on sale last year, which led to a rise in online scams targeting desperate Swifties.

Singapore police even released a social media video with the tagline: "Don't lose money swiftly, buy your tickets safely."

Regardless of the dangers, Ericko Dimas Pamungkas, 25, in Jakarta logged in to three devices to get a ticket queue number.

"I got very lucky. I feel like this concert is one of the most important moments for me," he said.

Swift has evolved from a singer with relatable lyrics into a canny businesswoman and the world's biggest pop star, and fans believe there is plenty to learn from the 34-year-old.

"I appreciate Taylor's candidness and what she stands for such as rights, generosity and compassion," said Spencer Ler, a Singaporean pilot who queued for 22 hours to get tickets for his daughter and her friends.

"It's something the girls can learn from."



Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.