Singapore welcomed record number of international visitor arrivals in 2018. About 18.5 million arrivals were recorded – a rise by 6.2 per cent. Tourism receipts increased 1 per cent to Singapore dollar 27.1 billion (U.S. dollar 20 billion) in 2018, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). Singapore witnessed higher number of travellers from China, India and Malaysia. China is its largest market.
The board forecast 2019 visitor arrivals of 18.7 million to 19.2 million, a rise of 1-4 per cent. It expects tourism receipts to increase between 1 and 3 percent to Singapore dollar 27.3 billion to Singapore dollar 27.9 billion this year.
Growth was seen from most of Singapore’s top 15 visitor arrival markets. However, the South Korea arrivals remained flat. There was double-digit growth from India, the US, Vietnam and the UK.
Seven out of the 15 markets hit new highs. These seven countries are China, India, Philippines, UK, USA, Vietnam, and Germany.
The growth has been attributed to greater outbound travel demand especially in Asia-Pacific, increased air connectivity and an expansion of marketing and trade efforts into more cities within the markets by the STB.
Visitor spending was a mixed bag in terms of performance. Shopping, accommodation and food and beverage (F&B) expenditure saw a dip. This was due to lesser spending on souvenirs and gifts, as well as a higher number of day-trippers and multi-destination visitors resulting in a shorter length of stay. However, the ‘other TR components’ segment grew by 21 per cent from a year ago, buoyed by an increase airfare revenues owing to growth in visitors arriving via local full-service carriers.
India, Indonesia and China registered the highest growth when it came to TR excluding sightseeing, entertainment and gaming. However, there was a decline in receipts from the US, the Philippines and South Korea.
