January 18, 2023: Singapore is welcoming them back, but a total return of Chinese tourists in 2023, Singapore Tourism Board executives stated at a press conference Tuesday.
Singapore Tourism Board’s CEO, Keith Tan, cites that limited flight capacity and the speed of the border reopening are reasons a full recovery from Chinese tourists is rare this year.
Tan said travel recovery from China is likely at most 60% of pre-Covid levels by year-end.
“We are hoping to get, for the year 2023, between 30% to 60% of where in comparison to the whole year 2019,” he stated. “In our most ambitious and tough scenarios, we hope things will be almost back to normal by 2023.”
Therefore, the number of flights from Singapore to China is only 10% pre-Covid. Unlike different countries in Asia, Singapore has not imposed new Covid-related restrictions on travellers from China.
According to its tourism board, Singapore’s tourism industry is anticipated to be better than pre-pandemic levels by 2024.
Tan said he is ready to welcome the competition from Hong Kong in terms of meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions.
Hong Kong “will be throwing a lot of resources to secure and anchor whole ideas of events,” he said.
“I call that competition. It is adequate, and I’m glad that Hong Kong is returning to business, but we must work harder to secure a good set of events and investments for Singapore.
Juliana Kua, the assistant CEO of the Singapore Tourism Board, added that “a strong pipeline of MICE events is coming up to attract Chinese corporate travellers.”
Kua stated that a trend observed among Chinese travellers is small group bookings with customized itineraries rather than off-the-shelf packaged tours. The Singapore Tourism Board is targeting these travellers, she said.
Singapore’s international visitor arrivals are contacting 6.3 million in 2022, which is 33% of 2019 levels, the Singapore Tourism Board’s statistics stated. Regarding 1.1 million visitors coming from Indonesia, the highest number of arrivals from any country.
Preliminary estimates for tourism receipts are amid $13.8 billion and $14.3 billion in Singapore dollars, nearly half of 2019′s tourism revenue.
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