GOOD food and excellent shopping opportunities are two of the biggest draws for affluent Singapore travellers, a group that plans to spend even more on travel in the year ahead.
According to the Visa Global Intentions Study 2013, commissioned by Visa to Millward Brown, travellers with household incomes of S$11,000 (US$8,669) or higher are classified as affluent.
For this group, good food (45 per cent) and good shopping (37 per cent) were the most important reasons for destination choice. Given this, it is unsurprising that affluent Singaporeans spend heavily on retail (28 per cent), dining (26 per cent) and activities (19 per cent).
Affluent Singapore travellers spend above the global average at medium and large retailers, high-end restaurants and on entertainment and nightlife.
While 71 per cent of Singaporeans travel with relatives compared to the global average of 69 per cent, 16 per cent of affluent Singaporean travellers make trips alone as compared to eight per cent of other Singaporeans.
This group is also more likely to travel further and stay longer, with 24 per cent taking flights of more than nine hours for holidays and 37 per cent staying seven nights or more.
High expenditure destinations are increasingly popular for this group, who also have plans to travel as far as the US.
According to the report, affluent Singaporeans are expected to double their travel expenditure with an average spend of US$5,501, or more than twice the global average of US$2,501.
Fieldwork for the study was conducted between November and December 2012 and based on online and offline surveys with travellers aged 15 and above across 25 markets in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and the Americas.
