Coldplay's six concerts in S'pore a 'missed economic lottery' for Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: The country has "missed an economic lottery", says Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman after rock band Coldplay announced its sixth concert date in Singapore.

The Muda president said that Malaysia had dropped the ball when it came to possible economic stimuluses such as these.

"Countries out there are grabbing golden chances to generate economic surplus.

"We used to have about 40 to 50 concerts a year. Now, there are so many obstacles and barriers," he said on his Facebook page on Tuesday (June 20).

Calling this a missed "economic lottery", Syed Saddiq said that opportunities for locals to cater to travellers that could have come for such international acts had been lost, in particular within the events management and tourism sectors.

"They (tourists) would also have to eat and would go travelling. At an estimated RM500 per day, 1,000 visitors equals RM500,000.

"Six days equals RM3mill. This is a huge sum of money that could have been generated.

"While we are busy arguing with ourselves, Malaysia is losing economic opportunities at home," he said.

The British band will be performing at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 22.

Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan said that the band was only performing one show in Malaysia.

"We have not received any applications for more shows other than the established date," he said.

Coldplay added a sixth show to the Singapore stop of its Music of the Spheres world tour on Jan 31.

This comes after promoters added a fifth show on Monday, following the sale of more than 200,000 tickets for the band’s original four shows on Jan 23, 24, 26, and 27 at the Singapore National Stadium.