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Follow our news, recent searches, singapore’s tourism sector gets s$300 million boost to develop new offerings, advertisement.

The capital injection will help Singapore’s tourism sector remain attractive amid intensifying competition, says Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan.

Tour agencies have observed that tour bookings now tend to come from smaller groups and the duration of stays in Singapore has also become longer. (Photo: TODAY/lli Nadhirah Mansor)

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SINGAPORE: Singapore will pump in more than S$300 million (US$223 million) to help its tourism sector continue its post-pandemic recovery amid intensifying global competition, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan on Friday (Mar 1).   Besides developing new products and experiences, the latest capital injection will also go to rejuvenating existing tourism offerings and upskilling workers, he told parliament during a debate on the ministry’s spending plans for the year.

Being one of the worst-hit industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector has received several rounds of funding to aid its recovery.   For example, close to half a billion dollars was set aside in 2022 to support “strategic manpower capabilities” in the sector and offset business costs, among others.   In 2021, the Tourism Development Fund – first set up in 2005 to grow tourism receipts, visitor arrivals and jobs – also got a S$68.5 million top-up to provide targeted support for the battered industry.   Mr Tan said the fund has introduced a number of new attractions and lifestyle events, such as sports and lifestyle attraction Trifecta in Somerset . More than 100 local tourism businesses also received assistance to become more productive and sustainable over the past two years.   “We encourage all our tourism companies to make full use of this top-up to grow your business,” he said.

Singapore's tourism sector saw a strong rebound in 2023, with international visitor arrivals recovering to 13.6 million . This was about 71 per cent of tourist arrivals in 2019, before international travel came to a halt in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   Tourism receipts for the first three quarters of 2023 also reached 98 per cent of the same period in 2019.   The Singapore government expects this recovery to continue in 2024, with international visitor arrivals to reach between 15 and 16 million visitors while chalking up around S$26 billion to S$27.5 billion in tourism receipts.

The Big Read: Beyond IRs and new attractions, how can Singapore draw more tourists and make them stay longer?

Commentary: visa waiver deal puts singapore in good stead to attract the coveted chinese tourist.

The implementation of a mutual 30-day visa-free travel between China and Singapore brings “more good news”, said Mr Tan.   Under the agreement which started on Feb 9, Singaporeans and Chinese citizens holding ordinary passports can enter China or Singapore without a visa for no more than 30 days if they are travelling for business, sightseeing, visiting friends and family, or other private affairs.

Mr Tan said this has made it easier for Chinese visitors to travel to Singapore - a likely boost to arrivals and spending across tourism-related, retail and the food and beverage sectors. The longer visa exemption also makes it more convenient for Singaporeans to travel to China for leisure and business.

Beyond investments, the government is also working with the tourism sector to develop “a pipeline of high quality and first-of-its-kind experiences” that will be launched in the coming years.

These include expansions at the Resorts World Sentosa to develop a Minions-themed zone at Universal Studios Singapore and an oceanarium that is significantly larger than the existing SEA Aquarium.

Sentosa will also get a new attraction called the Sensoryscape. Connecting Resorts World Sentosa and Sentosa’s beaches, the pathway will feature “multi-sensorial gardens” with digital light art displays at night, said Mr Tan.   The 30,000 sqm pathway, first announced in 2019, is part of a master plan to transform Sentosa and nearby Pulau Brani into a game-changing leisure and tourism spot in the next two to three decades. The iconic Merlion statue on Sentosa island was closed that year to make way for the new development.

The Sensoryscape will be soft launched this month.   Altogether, these new experiences will help to strengthen Singapore’s appeal as a “compelling destination”, Mr Tan said.

Taylor Swift effect: Singapore hotels, airlines see up to 30% spike in regional demand for 6 sell-out shows

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Singapore Boosting Tourism Industry Amid Rising Competition

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Large-scale business and leisure events to resume in tourism sector: Low Yen Ling

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The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is gearing up for a strong comeback by the tourism sector and will pave the way for large-scale, high-quality business and leisure events to recommence this year, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling said in Parliament on Friday (March 4).

Speaking during the debate on the Ministry of Trade and Industry's (MTI) budget, Ms Low said many more events, such as the Global Health Security Conference 2022 and Find Design Fair Asia 2022, as well as the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon will be held later in the year.

"We will defend our position as a leading destination for high-quality business and leisure events. We hit a 'pause' button on these because of Covid-19," said Ms Low.

The Singapore Air Show 2022, which took place from Feb 15 to 18, welcomed an estimated 13,000 trade attendees and almost 600 exhibitors from over 39 countries.

STB has also just launched the Tourism Careers Hub pilot to provide training and skills upgrading for workers and firms in the tourism sector.

The initiative will focus on job matching within the sector and encouraging technology transformation, among other workforce improvement efforts.

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The STB will accelerate its SingapoReimagine international recovery campaign as international travel resumes, and help tourism companies develop attractive products and experiences.

For example, the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers (SRV) scheme last year had been part of the ongoing SingapoRediscovers campaign.

The scheme has since generated nearly $300 million in SRV-related bookings and transactions, and up to $100 million in ancillary spending.

The MTI will also work with the tourism sector to co-create innovative tech and digital solutions.

Over the past three years, STB's Singapore Tourism Accelerator Programme supported 34 promising tech start-ups in developing solutions to ready the tourism industry for the future.

"Covid-19 has hit the tourism sector very hard, but despite the challenges, we have continued to quickly adapt and pivot to new propositions to come back stronger," said Ms Low.

"We will continue to support the tourism sector's efforts to recover, innovate and come back stronger than before."

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More robust laws will help, not hurt, Singapore’s business-friendly reputation

BEING a country known for its business-friendly environment has its perks but is not without peril, as recent high-profile criminal cases in Singapore have shown.

Up till 2020, Singapore placed second in the now-defunct Doing Business ranking published by the World Bank. In terms of the ease of starting a business, Singapore ranked fourth, behind overall chart-topper New Zealand, Georgia and Canada.

On one hand, this pro-business reputation has…

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Singapore Q1 GDP growth ticks up to 2.7% on 'strong' tourism recovery

City-state keeps monetary policy unchanged as inflation remains sticky

SINGAPORE -- Singapore's economy grew 2.7% in the January-March period from a year earlier, preliminary data showed on Friday, accelerating from 2.2% expansion in the previous quarter due to a recovery in the tourism sector.

According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the city-state's services sector grew 3.2% in the first quarter, up from 2% the previous quarter.

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Singapore economy grew 2.7% in Q1, but growth over previous quarter was slowest in a year

SINGAPORE - Singapore’s economy in the first three months of 2024 grew at its weakest quarter-on-quarter pace in a year as manufacturing slowed, but economists see growth strengthening ahead.

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the economy expanded by 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, down from the 1.2 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to advance estimates released on April 12 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).

OCBC Bank chief economist Selena Ling noted that quarter-on-quarter growth was the slowest since the first quarter of 2023. It is also lower than the 0.5 per cent gain tipped by analysts in a Bloomberg poll.

Compared with the same period last year, the economy grew 2.7 per cent, higher than the 2.2 per cent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2023. However, this figure also missed the Bloomberg poll’s median forecast of 3 per cent growth.

But, said Ms Ling: “Importantly, there was no change to the 2024 official growth forecast of 1 per cent to 3 per cent year on year, or to the headline and core inflation forecasts of 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent year on year.

“Singapore’s growth trajectory is tipped to strengthen for the subsequent quarters of 2024, predicated on an improvement in the manufacturing recovery theme, especially for electronics, and accompanied by the financial sector in anticipation that risk appetite should be buoyed by the global monetary policy easing cycle in the second half of 2024.”

Maybank economist Chua Hak Bin said the economy is cruising once again, but the growth is somewhat uneven.

He said the manufacturing and electronics recovery is weaker than expected, while the services industries are buoyant because of visa waivers for China tourists, a stronger trade-related services sector, as well as a Taylor Swift boost.

Dr Chua added that revenge travel may lose some steam for the rest of the year even though it made a strong comeback in the first quarter.

In the services sectors, wholesale and retail trade, and transportation and storage collectively grew 2.7 per cent year on year in the first quarter, up from 1 per cent in the previous quarter.

Sectors comprising the information and communications, finance and insurance, and professional services sectors grew 4.2 per cent year on year in the first quarter, faster than the 3.6 per cent growth in the previous quarter.

MTI said growth in the information and communications sector was bolstered by continued strong demand for information technology and digital solutions, while that in the professional services sector was mainly driven by the head offices and business representative offices segment.

The accommodation and food services, real estate, administrative and support services and other services sectors expanded by 2.9 per cent year on year in the first quarter, up from 2 per cent in the previous quarter.

Manufacturing growth, however, slowed to 0.8 per cent year on year in the first quarter, lower than the 1.4 per cent expansion in the previous quarter.

“Within the sector, output expansions in the chemicals, precision engineering and transport engineering clusters more than offset output contractions in the electronics, biomedical manufacturing and general manufacturing clusters,” MTI said.

The construction sector grew 4.3 per cent year on year in the first quarter, down from the 5.2 per cent growth in the previous quarter, led by a decline in private sector construction output.

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Singapore Economy Expands Slower Than Expected in First Quarter

Singapore ’s economy expanded slower than economists forecast, as a spending boost from increased tourism spurred by Taylor Swift concerts failed to offset a decline in manufacturing output.

Gross domestic product grew 0.1% in the quarter ended March from the prior three months, according to advance estimates Friday from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. That was slower than the median 0.5% gain forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey, and follows the 1.2% pace in the three months ended December. On a year-on-year basis, the economy expanded 2.7% last quarter.