The number of tourists that visited Singapore in 2018 reportedly increased by 6.2% year-on-year to reach approximately 18.5 million and led the small city-state to record an around 1% swell in annual sightseer spend to about $19.95 billion.
Record-setting performance:
According to a report from GGRAsia citing preliminary figures released by the Singapore Tourism Board on Wednesday, 2018 saw the tiny nation welcome a record numbers of tourists from China, the United Kingdom, India, Germany, the Philippines, Vietnam and the United States while additionally charting year-on-year improvements from a further seven countries.
The official figures revealed that ‘increased flight connectivity’ had led to India charting an impressive 13.4% year-on-year boost to account for about 1.44 million visitors with the figure for China having grown by a no less remarkable 6% to reach nearly 3.42 million.
Expanded gaming spend:
Singapore is home to a pair of integrated casino resorts encompassing the giant Resorts World Sentosa development and the nearby Marina Bay Sands venue while the figures from the Singapore Tourism Board showed that annual spend on entertainment, sightseeing and gaming activities had improved by 6% year-on-year. But, this rise was offset by comparable declines of 4%, 5% and 14% from the food and beverage, accommodation and shopping verticals respectively.
Hotel takings:
Keith Tan, Chief Executive for the Board, reportedly detailed that 2018’s ‘tourism receipts’ metric, which encompasses locally-purchased airfares, ground transportation costs and port taxes as well as business, medical and educational expenses, had grown by 21% year-on-year while aggregated hotel room revenues had risen by 7.4% to exceed $2.94 billion.
Tan’s statement read…
“We are pleased that Singapore’s tourism sector performed well in 2018 despite some economic uncertainties. We were fortunate to have benefited from a confluence of positive factors such as strong Asia-Pacific travel demand, increased flight connectivity to Singapore and various high-profile events. It is also heartening to see our marketing efforts and collaborations with industry partners bearing fruit.”
Positive expectations:
Looking ahead and the Singapore Tourism Board predicted that the petite nation expects to welcome up to 19.2 million tourists during 2019, which would equate to a rise of 4% year-on-year, and that these visitors could spend as much as 3% more at $20.53 billion.
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