1.5 million tourists from India expected in Singapore in 2024: STB

Huat Zai · March 21

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is expecting 1.5 million tourists from India this year. This would exceed the 1.4 million Indian visitors in 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Last year, over 1 million Indian tourists came to Singapore.

“We are confident in Singapore’s tourism rebound. In 2019, we recorded a record high of 1.4 million Indian tourists, and in 2023, we achieved a 75 per cent recovery with 1.07 million Indian visitors, solidifying India as our fifth-largest tourism source,” businessline quotes Mr Markus Tan, the Regional Director for India, Middle East, South Asia & Africa (IMESA) at the Singapore Tourism Board, as saying earlier this month.

“Even if we reach 90 to 95 per cent of pre-Covid levels this year, it is a good number to achieve,” he said, adding that an additional boost from tier 2 cities is also expected this year.

“We are committed to captivating Indian travellers and sustaining positive momentum in the market,” Mr Tan underlined.

Meanwhile, China has overtaken Indonesia as Singapore’s biggest source of tourists, and Malaysia and Australia are also in the top five of the Little Red Dot’s biggest sources of visitors.

Tourism receipts for 2023 are expected to be between S$24.5 to S$26 billion, which is between S$18 to 21 billion more than what STB had predicted. For 2024, due to events such as Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, the total amount is expected to be even higher.

In India, STB has three offices in strategic areas— Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. Mr Poh Chi Chuan, the executive director of Exhibition & Conference at STB, said that the agency is working on making it easy for Indian tourists to easily acquire visas to Singapore.

Mr Poh added that not only is Singapore expecting more tourists to come, but business travelers as well, since trade between the two countries is flourishing.

To accommodate the expected influx of travelers not only from India but from all across the globe, 9,000 new hotel rooms are being added to Singapore’s total, which is now at a whopping 72,000 rooms.

“Singapore’s tourism sector recovered strongly and demonstrated resilience with a solid performance for 2023,” STB said earlier this year.

The agency’s chief executive, Ms Melissa Ow, said, “To sustain our growth in 2024 and beyond, STB will focus on achieving quality tourism, cultivating strategic partnerships, investing in new and refreshed products and experiences, and supporting stakeholders in building capabilities.” /TISG

https://theindependent.sg/1-5-million-tourists-from-india-expected-in-singapore-in-2024-stb/