Big spenders travel to Singapore

Singapore’s move to encourage visitors to spend more is paying off as recent figures reveal the total spending amount is    exceeding the growth of visitor arrival numbers. Giving that the tourist numbers increased by less than 13 percent indicates that the visitors who travelled to the Island are spending up big during their visit.

Not surprisingly, 60 percent of this money is spent on shopping, accommodation, sightseeing, entertainment and gaming.

 National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (Natas) chief executive Robert Khoo said it is a sensible approach to market Singapore as a destination for those with money to burn, when looking at the Islands “physical constraints”.

“There’s a limit, for instance, to how many more hotels we can build or how many more tours we can run or how many more tour coaches we can have on our roads,” Mr Khoo said.

Mr Khoo explained that these limitations separate Singapore from surrounding larger countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

According to the Singapore Tourism Board tourists who visited the Island in 2011 spent S$22.3billion, up 18 percent from the year before, Jakarta Globe reported. “They have plenty of land to keep building and building, so for them, it’s about driving the number of visitors up.”

In 2011 the hotel occupancy rate reached 86 percent and the average room rate was S$245 a night, up 13 percent from the previous year.

Additionally, STB also underlined key hotel developments, stating that hotels had a prosperous year, achieving S$2.6 billion in room revenue, up 28 percent from 2010.