The inaugural Singapore Hospitality & Tourism Conference (SHTC) 2025 is taking place today at Marina Bay Sands, in conjunction with ITB Asia.
In addition to panel discussions, student attendees also have access to a career fair which offers close to 700 immediate opportunities across more than 20 companies in tourism such as Mandai Wildlife Group, Conrad Singapore Orchard, and Singapore Airlines.
These extensive job opportunities reflect the tourism sector’s strength, supported by strong employment trends, where between June 2023 and June 2025, Singapore’s total tourism workforce grew by more than eight per cent from 69,000 to 75,000. The sector is actively hiring, with over 5,000 job postings covering around 6,700 vacancies available in 2Q2025 on Workforce Singapore’s MyCareersFuture portal.
Rachel Loh, executive director of hospitality and tourism talent at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), told media during a group interview that, beyond traditional roles such as HR executives, new positions have emerged, including a data scientist at Marina Bay Sands and an international ski and snowboard management trainee at EU Holidays.
Additionally, the hospitality sector, which employs over 43 per cent of the tourism sector’s workforce, is set to grow even further, with another 1,500 new hotel rooms expected to open by end-2026.
Loh asserted that “tourism has a bright future”, backing this claim with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) statistics that show some 1,500 students now select tourism and hospitality as their top choice – a 66 per cent growth compared to two years ago.
For mid-career individuals, work-study programmes have seen “very encouraging growth”, with participants rising from 70 two years ago to 100 this year (based on Republic Polytechnic figures). This development is supported by accredited courses offered through CET (Continuing Education and Training) centres like the NTUC LearningHub, which has a three-year partnership with STB.
Responding to a query raised by TTG Asia about SHATEC’s closure earlier this year, Loh reassured: “There is sufficient supply to continue this pipeline of training, both for students as well as industry professionals, into the broader tourism sector as well.”
When asked by TTG Asia how assurance could be given to students considering the tourism sector, Rachel Loh said the industry’s swift post-pandemic rebound demonstrates its resilience. She noted that the pandemic highlighted the sector’s adaptability, with traditional tours revamped into gamified, mystery-themed experiences to engage domestic audiences. Rather than coming to a halt, Loh said the downtime was used to reinvent business models and strengthen competitiveness. She added that if a crisis similar to Covid-19 were to occur again, the industry would be “even more prepared” having learned to adapt and emerge “so much stronger”.
This inaugural SHTC 2025 evolved from the annual Tourism Transformation event, building on five editions led by the Tourism Sector Coordinator Team, comprising six IHLs (Institute of Technical Education, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, and Temasek Polytechnic).
Now rebranded and enhanced, this iteration with new partners including STB, Singapore Institute of Technology, and Singapore University of Social Sciences, aims to deliver a more comprehensive programme and job opportunities for students, signalling a strong commitment to build Singapore’s talent pipeline for the hospitality and tourism sector.
