Singapore registers slowest tourist spending growth in 2013
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s tourist spending recorded a new high of 23.5 billion Singapore dollars (18.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2013, up 1.6 percent on year, according to preliminary estimates by Singapore Tourism Board .
The growth, however, was the slowest since 2009.The city-state welcomed a record 15.5 million tourists last year, up 7.2 percent on year.
The tourism board said the slower growth rate in spending was mainly due to spending cut by business visitors, who spent 6 percent less on year during the first nine months last year. The board said the decline in business travel, meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (BTMICE) sector was due to cutback on travel budgets.
On the other hand, from January to September last year, leisure travelers spent 10 percent more than the same period a year earlier.
During the same period, visitors from the Chinese mainland surpassed Indonesia as the biggest spenders in Singapore, with tourism receipts of 2.38 billion Singapore dollars (1.89 billion U. S. dollars), 5.77 percent more than Indonesians’. This excludes what they spent on sightseeing, entertainment and gaming.
The rise in Chinese visitors’ spending was mainly due to increase in shopping expenditure, the tourism board said. There were totally 1.9 million visitors coming into Singapore from Chinese mainland from last January to September, still ranking as the second largest tourists resource following Indonesia.
The tourism board said 77 percent of international visitor arrivals were from Asia.
Among the city-state’s top 15 international visitor arrivals’ markets, Chinese mainland, China’s Taiwan and Hong Kong all registered double-digit annual growth rate in visitor arrivals, which was boosted by increase in air capacity, as well as higher twinning traffic with Malaysia.
The slower growth in tourism spending was also due to lower airfares, with low-cost carriers flying more passengers to Singapore, local paper the Straits Times reported. The tourism board also eyed that low-cost carries phenomenon will continue and intensify inter-airline competition in the future.- Xinhua
Feb. 19, 2014
