| Sunday, February 04, 2007 |
| Singapore surpasses tourism targets |
Exceeding target, the tourism sector in Singapore generated an estimated S$12.4 billion in tourism receipts (TR) in 2006.
The figure surpasses the target of S$12 billion and posts a double-digit growth of 14.5% over 2005. This is a record in terms of tourist receipts.
Singapore also set a new high of 9.7 million visitor arrivals in 2006, exceeding its target of 9.4 million visitor arrivals and registering an increase of 9% over 2005.
Total visitor days grew by 9.0% to reach 32.9 million days in 2006.
The breakup of tourist arrivals in Singapore is: Indonesia - 1,921,000 visitors, China - 1,037,000, Australia - 692,000, India - 659,000, and Malaysia - 634,000. These five countries accounted for over 50% of total visitor arrivals in Singapore in 2006.
Asia - with 7.1 million visitors - continues to be an important source market for Singapore, contributing to 72.9% of the total visitor arrivals and marking an increase of 9.2% over 2005.
Singapore's hospitality industry also fared well in 2006. Latest figures show that the average occupancy rate for the hotel sector reached 85% from January to December 2006 - a growth of 1.4 percentage point over the same period in 2005. The average room rate for 2006 was estimated to reach S$164 - a rise of 19.6% over 2005.
Hotel room revenues achieved a double-digit growth of 21.2% to reach S$1.5 billion in this period.
In 2006, Singapore launched two marketing and advertising campaigns: (1) Singapore, Where Great Things Happen - aimed at business travel and meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions, and (2) Uniquely Singapore, Beyond Words - targeting leisure and meeting, incentive travel, exhibitions and conventions events.
With the two integrated resorts - Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World at Sentosa - getting completed in 2009 and 2010, respectively, Singapore can look certainly forward to even more regional and global interest in the coming years.
In addition, the Singapore Flyer, Singapore's iconic 165-metre observation wheel, is due to take tourism to greater heights at the start of 2008.Labels: Business |
| posted by a correspondent @ 6:53 AM |
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