The State of Travel and Tourism

With Singapore’s economy booming and hundreds of companies flocking to join in on the technological revolution, it is not surprising that tourism has exponentially increased. In fact, Easy Destination states that in April 2010 alone, Singapore saw a significant spike in tourism—a whopping 20.4% of an increase. With the total number of visitors to the small nation reaching roughly 938,000, Singapore has. for the 5th time in a row, recorded record high number of visitors with the help of its bordering country’s—India, Thailand, and Malaysia. “Tourist arrivals from Thailand increased by 57.5 per cent, while visitors from Malaysia and India grew 50.8 per cent and 30.8 per cent. Singapore’s top five visitor-generating markets in April were Indonesia (with 163,000 visitors), China (92,000), Malaysia (77,000), India (73,000) and Australia (70,000)”, says the website.
Singapore is working towards making their country more appealing to tourists, and in those efforts they recently opened their first casino. Thus far, it has been very successful. Located at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), its opening week saw 130,000 visitors.
Along with the rest the nation, Singapore’s hotel industry is also booming and minting revenue. Future projections are positive and predict more of an increase in tourism and the hotel industry.
The reason why tourists are flocking to Singapore is not only due to its flourishing economy but more so because they have created a very tourist friendly environment. With many hotels to choose from and many places to visit and do, this little country has become ideal for people looking for an adventure or an escape.
In further efforts to promote tourism to the country, Singapore has joined forces with South Korea. The Gov Monitor states that recently, a delegation consisting of 18 members of Singapore’s travel trade visited South Korea to establish relations and discuss plans to drive tourism between both places. Steve Yong, of the Korea Tourism Organization, says, “Every year, almost 100,000 visitors from Singapore visit Korea… through this tourism development initiative, we are inviting representatives from key travel agencies and media from Singapore to discover the attractions and meet perspective tourism partners in Busan and its vicinity. We hope this will pave the way for more new tour packages covering this area and public awareness through media publicity. This initiative will create mutual economic and tourism benefits for both countries.”
Clearly, the increased interest in visiting Singapore has been facilitated by the government and the local public’s efforts. Aside from delegations to other countries, the nation also has organizations that work hand-in-hand with the government to provide tourists with an ideal vacation and keep hotel standards high. For example, the Singapore Hotel Association (SHA) and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) work together to nurture tourism; their “activities include joint marketing of hospitality/tourism events, promoting service excellence among members, and developing tourism training courses”, says Enterprise One.
In coming years, Singapore hopes that tourism will further increase. “We expect the imminent opening of the Universal Studio theme park, the main attraction at RWS, and the launch of Marina Bay Sands in April, will go a long way in helping to meet the Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) forecast of 11.5– 12.5 million tourist arrivals for 2010 and 17 million by 2015. To hit the 17 million target by 2015, tourist arrivals would have to grow at a CAGR of 7% between 2011 and 2015, an ambitious but not-impossible target, compared to the historical CAGR of 4.7% between 1980 and 2009” states Credit Suisse.
As Singapore harbors more and more visitors every year, more and more businesses are considering their options when it comes to this country. The surge in tourism and travel is a clear-cut indicator of the stability and growth of the economy and that this place is quite possibly a great investment. All projections about Singapore’s economy are positive and considering that, in terms of tourism, the nation surpassed the expected numbers of visitors, one can only imagine the success that Singapore will continue to see.