SINGAPORE continued to see an upward march in visitor numbers and tourism receipts for 2012, but this has dropped to single-digit growth.
Some 14.4 million tourists arrived in Singapore last year, a nine per cent increase over 2011, while tourism receipts recorded S$23 billion (US$18.4 billion), a mere 3.6 per cent rise. In 2011, visitor arrivals and tourism receipts grew by 13 per cent and 17 per cent respectively (TTG Asia tourism data, February 7, 2012).
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has forecast 14.8-15.5 million arrivals and tourism receipts of S$23.5-24.5 billion for 2013.
Addressing Singapore’s parliament, second minister for trade and industry, S Iswaran, said arrivals could not grow “indefinitely and sustainably” at the rates of recent years”. “Domestically, our land and manpower constraints mean we need to find new ways to do more with less. The next phase of tourism growth would thus have to come from increasing the yield through visitor spend, rather than just visitor numbers.”
He said: “Externally, the rise in Asian tourism over the coming years presents a window of opportunity for us to attract discerning travellers who seek out differentiated and value-added experiences.”
Iswaran pointed out that there was a need for strong content in the tourism sector to drive the push for high-yield tourists, adding that STB would establish a new Kickstart Fund with an initial funding of S$5 million to support lifestyle concepts with strong tourism potential and scalability, including pop-up entertainment, dining, retail or arts events.
Luxury Tours & Travel Singapore’s director, Michael Lee, was not optimistic about 2013’s prospects. “The tourism outlook in Singapore this year is not good because prices are rising everywhere. For example, hotel prices here cannot attract tourists because they are so high. Singapore is the most expensive city among neighbouring countries and this will make us lose out,” he said.
Nevertheless, Lee added: “Hopefully our new attractions here can bring (tourists) in, but we must make sure there are good service standards too.”
Additional reporting by Lee Pei Qi
