I do love Taylor Swift, but have been getting nauseous about the numerous claims that her concerts here make Melbourne one of ‘the world’s greatest major event cities’. 

We’ve just had the AusOpen which is without doubt one of the best events of its kind in the world. Its an event created in Melbourne, that reflects what is great about Melbourne, and represents Melbourne so well on the world stage. It is a great testament to all our city’s event people and businesses that make it happen. 

Taylor’s concert – which will be great – is setting records in 52 cities across 22 countries. The top selling city looks to be London with eight Wembley Stadium shows (each about the same size crowd as the MCG, so about 700k pax). Even Singapore has sold a 50k pax stadium out six times. Lot of cities have sold out three or four stadiums.

And, I’m pretty sure that Sydney has outsold Melbourne.  So I guess that means Sydney is an even greater world major event city than Melbourne.

And then there is the Swiftonomics….  A standout from a pretty crowded field being the Herald Sun front page that gushed that the concerts would see a spend of $1.2 billion in Melbourne.  Three times the economic benefit of the AusOpen – had it been true.

So an average spend of $4,600 per person.  The reality is the spend will be much closer to $400 per person.  Hence Destination NSW are suggesting a total spend of $130 million – which is much closer to the mark.The concerts will be good.  And are really good for tourism.

But the reality is we are just one stop on a big world tour. It doesn’t define us.

Melbourne has so much to be proud of as an event city, and so much that is unique to us, and that really represents us. We should be trumpeting that instead. 

P.S. And there will be many great Melbourne event people at the MCG making Taylor’s shows a success.

Simon Thewlis

Event Pty Ltd