SINGAPORE – A record number of tourists came and spent more here last year, but growth was the lowest since 2009, as business travellers tightened their purse strings and leisure visitors chose to fly budget carriers.
According to preliminary estimates by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore welcomed 15.5 million visitors last year, up by 7.2 per cent over the previous year.
But they spent marginally more on transport, food, accommodation and shopping, from $23.1 billion in 2012 to $23.5 billion last year.
It paled in comparison to the year-on-year growth in tourist spending between 2009 and 2012 of 3.6 per cent to 50 per cent. In that period, visitor arrivals also increased between 9 and 19.6 per cent.
Barring the 2008 economic crisis which crippled the tourism industry and led tourist spending to dip in 2009, the pace of growth for tourism receipts last year was the lowest in a decade.
STB attributed it to two reasons: muted spending by business travellers as firms cut corporate travel budgets, and more people using low-cost carriers.
Though there were more people coming here for business travel and meetings, incentives, conferences and events (Mice) between January and September last year, they spent less than they did in 2012.Taking the biggest hit were airfares, education and medical expenditure.
Though hotel room revenue rose, the average room rate dipped – for the first time since 2009 – by 1.6 per cent to $258.
And with keen regional competition for the same tourism pie and Singapore’s tight labour market, projections are the sluggish growth in spending will persist at 4 to 6 per cent over the next 10 years, in contrast with the record growths posted between 2002 and 2012.
Tourist numbers hit record high in 2013
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