SINGAPORE – Tourism numbers for Singapore hit new lows last year, but the industry is hopeful of a bounce back this year as global vaccination rates rise.
The number of visitors to Singapore plunged from 2.7 million in 2020 to just below 330,000 last year – less than 2 per cent of the 19 million who arrived pre-Covid-19 in 2019.
Still, more than 120,000 of the arrivals last year came in November and December, after the launch of 24 air vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs), starting in September.
There was also an uptick in the final months of last year in passports issued, even though the year had the fewest number for passport renewals and applications in 15 years.
Travel restrictions and border closures saw the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) issue 281,918 passports last year, the fewest since 2006 when citizens received 353,562 passports.
Of the new passports last year, 103,968, or just over a third, were issued in the last three months, after the ICA announced that…