SINGAPORE, Oct 28 — In a sure sign that the economic storm is abating, visitor arrivals in Singapore hit 799,000 in September, representing a 7.1 per cent increase over the corresponding month last year.
This is the first growth since visitor arrivals began to dip 15 months ago. Two-thirds of Singapore’s leading visitor-generating markets saw growth: in the top 15 arrivals, 10 had gone up.
Malaysia, Singapore’s third-largest visitor generating market, recorded the biggest increase of 51.2 per cent. Indonesia, Singapore’s top visitor market, recorded an increase of 26.8 per cent.
The number of visitors from Japan also saw grew for the first time this year — by 7.7 per cent.
In a statement released yesterday, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said the pick-up was due to the Hari Raya holidays and Japan’s five-day Silver Week vacation in September. The “attractive travel packages and aggressive marketing for the Singapore Grand Prix Season” also made Singapore a favourable destination.
The only top-five market that showed negative growth was China — Chinese tourist arrivals fell 11 per cent.
Other markets that declined include South Korea, shrinking 39 per cent, while visitor numbers from Taiwan and Thailand dropped 15 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. The number of visitors from the United States remained the same.
The figures come on the back of a more buoyant few months when various tourism industry sectors, including aviation and travel agencies, saw small improvements. The number of weekly flights at Changi Airport hit a record 4,830 this week — 8 per cent more than a year ago.
And National Association of Travel Agents (Natas) chief executive Robert Khoo said that members have seen flight and tour sales inch up 10 per cent each quarter for the past two quarters.
“This is very good news, and shows that the recovery is coming,” he said, adding that things seem on target to meet STB’s revised visitor arrival targets this year.
The STB estimates that there will be between nine million and 9.5 million visitors this year, which works out to an annual decline of between 6 per cent and 11 per cent.
Meanwhile, hotels are experiencing higher occupancy rates.
While gazetted hotel room revenue was estimated at US$140 million (RM477 million), a drop of 28 per cent from a year ago, the average occupancy rate was at 78.2 per cent, a 4.1 percentage point increase over September last year. Average room rates, however, were down 31.2 per cent to US$207 per night.
Occupancy rates have been solid in the past three months, said Grand Mercure Roxy hotel’s general manager Kevin Bossino, who has seen occupancy increase from 88 per cent in August to 90.5 per cent last month. He expects this figure to increase to 92 per cent by the end of this month.
Leong Yew Poh, CEO of Singapore-based hotel management company Radius Hotel Group, is also positive that the industry is out of the woods.
He will be opening a new 65-room boutique hotel on East Coast Road today.
“I think the future of the industry is good in Singapore. Once the integrated resorts open, the tourists will start coming back in,” he said. — The Straits Times
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