Record one million visitors a month means sector poised to meet year’s targets
Singapore set a new record yesterday with one million visitors in a month, and hailed its recovery from the tourism doldrums of last year.
Officials and industry players and now predicting the country will reach, or even exceed, visitorship and tourism receipt targets for the year.
Those set earlier by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) were for 11.5 million to 12.5 million visitors this year, and $17.5 billion to $18.5 billion in tourism receipts.
The board’s master plan envisages 17 million visitors annually by 2015, with $30 billion generated in receipts.
Speaking at a celebration ceremony yesterday at Changi Airport’s Budget Terminal, Mr Leong Yue Khong, assistant chief executive of the international group at STB, said he was “quietly confident” of hitting targets.
“(The visitorship growth) is sustainable. Barring any surprises like Sars or H1N1, we will continue to do well,” said Mr Leong, referring to disease outbreaks in 2003 and 2009 which dampened tourism.
The integrated resorts, already big tourist draws, are expected to open still more attractions, such as a museum at Marina Bay Sands and more rides at the Universal Studios theme park at Resorts World Sentosa.
Sentosa is developing more parts of the island and exploring the idea of adding new attractions.
And new attractions slated for the coming years, such as the Gardens by the Bay in the heard of the city and the River Safari in Mandai, should help to boost numbers her said.
Mr Leong said he expected the tourism infrastructure, such as hotel room supply, to be up to speed by 2015 to support the growth.
There are about 45,000 hotel rooms now. Mr Albert Choong, vice-president of the Singapore Hotel Association (SHA), said he expects another 10,000 in the next three to five years.
After a record 2007 which saw annual visitorship hit 10.3 million, Singapore saw arrivals dip over the next two years with the fallout from the global financial crisis in 2008 and the H1N1 flu pandemic last year. Visitor arrivals dropped to 10.1 million in 2008, and 9.7 million last year.
Things began to pick up at the end of last year and every month since December, the country has set monthly visitor arrival records, due in part to the openings of the integrated resorts.
With the newest record, an estimated average of 32,258 visitors arrives every day now.
Ten years ago, that number was 21,068 visitors a day, with 7.69 million visitors for 2000.
In the last decade, the visitor profile has also changed.
While Indonesians still make up the biggest numbers by far, the Chinese have now overtaken the Japanese as No.2.
Visitors from regional countries such as the Philippines and Thailand are also more numerous these days.
More top spenders are now also coming from Asia. In 2002, the year that the STB started analyzing tourism receipts by market, the top spenders were the Indonesians, Japanese and Indians, followed by the Australians and Americans.
In 2008, Indonesians were still the biggest spenders, followed by the Chinese, Indians, Australians and Filipinos.
If Singapore hits its targets for this year, the average spending per visitor would go up from about $1352 in 2000 to at least $1521 now.
Industry observers said that Singapore is on the right track, though some things could be improved, likes encouraging tourists to stay longer.
Mr Robert Khoo, president of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore, said that while there are many more Chinese tourists, they tend to stay for just one or two days and spend more time in countries like Malaysia and Thailand.
Part of this, he said, was due to hotel room rates being more expensive in Singapore than in its regional competitors.
Ms Wu Kou Tian, 30, a hotel executive from Beijing, arrived yesterday after six days in Thailand. On a package tour of the region, she planned to stay just one day here. “I’m just here for shopping, then, we are going to Genting Highlands to gamble,” said Ms Wu.
Mr Choong from SHA said that operational costs in Singapore are almost on par with more expensive cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo.
“At the end of the day, the whole industry must be sustainable, or else nobody would want to build hotels here,” he said.
As a compromise, Mr Khoo suggested: “The Tourism Board could show that while Singapore’s rate: are not as cheap, we are a quality destination that; value for money.”Yesterday, Mr Leong said that the industry knows best how to handle issues of demand and supply. With new attractions opening, he expected to see the average length of stay go up from 3.5 days to four days by next year.
Source: prime. News by Tessa Wong on 31 Jul 2010
