Bewitching waterfalls, shops, restaurants, skyscrapers, mega malls…Singapore attracts. Over the years, it has remained a popular tourist destination achieving one landmark after another. Last week, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced that tourism in the city surpassed expectations, with over 2.9 million arrivals in the first three months of this year.
A national daily reported that this is 62% of 2019’s first quarter figure of the 4.7 million people who visited Singapore in the first quarter that year.
From India’s context, it’s interesting that the country has contributed 1,93,230 to the above figures. It’s approximately 3.5 times more than the 54,530 who went to Singapore last year.
Indian residents have emerged as the fourth largest source of tourist arrivals in the first quarter after Indonesians (5,23,300), Malaysian (2,78,910) and Australians (2,65,730), the report said, adding that Americans made up the fifth largest group of visitors by country of origin at 1,68,960.
China, hitherto the largest source of tourists for Singapore with over 3.75 million visitors in four years ago, comprises the ninth largest group of tourists in Q1 with only 124,560 coming to Singapore.
China’s drop in numbers is attributed to inconvenient travel processes targeted at the country’s citizens by South Korea and Japan. Delays in passport renewals and visa applications coupled with passenger restrictions on Chinese airlines on account of Covid have led to a dip in numbers.
However, the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute estimates that China’s outbound travel will recoup to reach around two-thirds of 2019’s figures, with around 110 million overseas trips in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Tourism Board has announced an SGD 10 million (USD 7.5 million) Singapore On-screen Fund to support international media and entertainment (M&E) partners in marketing Singapore through television and film shows aimed at an international audience.
It also announced the return of the Free Singapore Tour, meant for transit passengers at Changi who have a layover period of at least five and a half hours but less than 24 hours.
New features have been added to tours such as the City Sights, Heritage, and Jewel.
The daily added that a brand-new Disney Cruise Line ship is expected to add scores of local and foreign cruise passengers, including fly-cruise passengers who arrive in Singapore by air.
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