2010 a great year for Singapore's tourism industry

2010 a great year for Singapore's tourism industry

It has been a great year for tourism in Singapore, with more visitors and more high-spending ones.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) estimates that tourist arrivals this year will grow around 25 per cent from 2009 to hit about 12 million visitors.

At the same time, it expects tourism receipts to grow almost 50 per cent on-year, reaching as much as S$18.5 billion.

STB is optimistic about the industry's prospects going into the new year.

It said the higher growth in receipts compared with arrivals means the average visitor here is spending more.

These include Malaysian tourists who are arriving here by the busloads. And some 3,000 of them reportedly head to the two integrated resorts (IRs) daily - to gamble and to shop.

But Malaysian politicians such as Johor's Datuk Tee Siew Kiong have raised concerns over the outflow of money from their country, estimating that Malaysians spent S$3 million per day on gaming in Singapore.

Tan Khee Giap, an economist and associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said: "When they come to Singapore, they look at the map, they will see the bigger countries surrounding us, so they are directly benefiting from the overspilling effect of our IR-driven tourism.

"So if they look at the long term, instead of complaining those tourists come into Singapore, they should get themselves prepared for more tourists."

While Singapore's IRs have been a huge success, some industry watchers said the Republic must be on guard from increasing competition for gaming dollars in the region.

Song Seng Wun, regional economist at CIMB said: "Take Macau as an example. When they first started out, it was just casinos and more casinos. More recently, they are also adopting an integrated resort type of approach towards the gaming industry, mainly because they have seen how the two IRs here have turned out, and how well it seems to be working at this juncture."

Overall, though, the outlook for Singapore IRs is strong, with casino revenues expected to roughly double to US$5.5 billion next year, according to consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Professor Tan said: "The tourism hub is the mother of all hubs. Because you have a tourism hub, you can have financial services, health care services, education services...In the past, we lacked the critical mass and all these could not take place..."

The two integrated resorts are expected to be fully operational next year.

STB said that besides the IRs, there are also other drivers for growth in the tourism industry next year.

Specifically, it points out that the number of business meetings had soared around the Singapore F1 Grand Prix this year.

Aw Kah Peng, chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board, said: "Singapore is already a base for many companies who want to do business in Asia but who are looking for a base to put their business, and because we are already a base for businesses like banks, manufacturing companies and consumer-related companies, there is already a natural pool of potential corporate clients who can then use the F1 platform. "

STB said that looking ahead, it expects to tap on technology to boost tourism.

One example is the YourSingapore website which has seen 5 million hits this year, three times more than its previous tourist-targeted website.

-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-