Many Indonesians Watch Taylor Swift's Concert In Singapore, Jokowi: We Lost Money

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) estimates that half of the audience at Taylor Swift's music concert which took place in Singapore in March 2024, is an Indonesian citizen.

According to him, this caused Indonesia to lose a lot of money in the tourism sector.

"What happens if we flock to watch it in Singapore? There is a capital outflow, a flow of money from Indonesia to Singapore, we lose, lose money," said Jokowi when giving a speech at The Tribrata, South Jakarta, Monday, June 24.

Indonesia lost revenue with a nominal amount. Although it did not specify, some of them were from the purchase of concert tickets, hotels, and consumption that could be obtained if Taylor Swift's concert was also held in Indonesia.

"The loss of money is not only to buy tickets, but to lose Indonesian money to pay for hotels, to eat, to transport and others," he said.

Jokowi also mentioned that Singapore, the only country in Southeast Asia, held a Taylor Swift concert because licensing bureaucracy was easy.

In fact, if you look at the number of Taylor Swift music listeners on Spotify, Indonesia is quite a lot of about 2.2 million people.

"Why is it always Singapore that organizes it? Yes, because of the speed in serving, bringing in the artists. Government support, both easy access, security and others," said Jokowi.