The Singapore government has signed off an additional round of Tourism Development Fund – a hefty S$740 million (US$583 million) that will be disbursed over the next five years – to speed the country’s travel and tourism industry towards its ambitious Tourism 2040 goals, which aims for between S$47 billion and S$50 billion in tourism spend by 2040.
The Tourism Development Fund was allocated S$300 million in 2024.
Grace Fu, minister for sustainability and the environment and minister-in-charge of trade relations, said the top-up will allow Singapore to focus on three areas in its tourism development efforts.
The first is to strengthen Singapore’s position as a vital and trusted hub. “To fortify Singapore’s position as a vital global hub, we must expand and renew our capacity and connectivity,” said Fu.
Efforts to this end include enhancing maritime connectivity through the possible development of a new integrated cruise and ferry infrastructure as part of the larger Greater Southern Waterfront development; expanding Singapore’s business events infrastructure with a planned Downtown MICE Hub development in the Marina Bay area; and strengthening the country’s business events portfolio with new industry partnerships and continued efforts to attract high-value business gatherings, such as several first-in-Asia events like Passenger Terminal Expo Asia 2026, Breakbulk Asia 2026, and the WCA Worldwide Conference 2027.
Destination development will be matched by intensified marketing campaigns, additional film and TV collaborations, and fresh and renewed partnerships to drive global demand, shared Melissa Ow, chief executive of Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
For example, STB’s We Don’t Wait for Fun global marketing effort, which was rolled out in 2025 to target the Early Careers visitor segment, will now be extended to the Family segment.
In terms of partnerships, STB has entered a joint regional marketing campaign with Grab to encourage discovery of key tourism precincts; renewed its MoU with Weixin Pay on joint marketing campaigns and to scale up frictionless Palm Technology for the first time outside of China; and signed an MoU with Xiaohongshu to derive greater insights on Chinese travellers’ consumer journeys as well as to host Xiaohongshu’s first Global Tourism Summit outside of China.
The second area of focus to achieve Tourism 2040 goals is to “build a world-class city and endearing home”, which requires continued investments to “rejuvenate our cityscape with refreshed products and experiences that reflect Singapore’s unique character”, stated Fu.
Ow added that “strong home-grown brands, anchored by a distinctive local core across our products, experiences and precincts, (will) authentically convey our destination stories”.
In the coming years and towards 2040, visitors to Singapore can expect new developments across the familiar Sentosa, Mandai and Orchard Road tourism precincts; new experiences and products that support home-grown intellectual property brands, concepts and products; a robust line-up of entertainment, sports, fashion and culinary events; enhanced existing tourism products; and continued flow of new hotels, wellness attractions and cruise opportunities.
To help Singapore’s tourism industry players visualise rejuvenation plans for Sentosa and Orchard Road, the Tourism Industry Conference on May 8 featured an interactive exhibit that details new features and infrastructure to come.
The third, according to Fu, is to develop strong businesses and invest in human capital.
Fu pointed to STB’s ongoing work with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority on plans to guide tourism businesses on digitalisation and technology solutions that can enhance the visitor experience and improve the workforce productivity.
“In the second half of this year, STB will be able to provide more streamlined funding support to tourism stakeholders for some of these pre-approved solutions, under Enterprise Singapore’s EDGE grant,” shared Fu.
Other initiatives to transform businesses and raise the professionalism of industry talents include a review of the Attractions industry technology roadmap by early 2027; a broadened Training Industry Professionals in Tourism Scheme to fund stretch job assignments and in-house skills training for rank-and-file workers; and initiatives to encourage upskilling among tourist guides and to streamline regulatory processes for tourist guide licensing.
