Singapore’s China visitor rebound lags general trend in 1Q
Visitor volume to Singapore in the first three months of this year recovered to 92.8 percent of pre-pandemic first-quarter 2019. But rebound of Chinese visitor volume lagged the overall trend, at 81.8 percent of first-quarter 2019.
The first-quarter 2024 data were restated by the Singapore Tourism Board, relative to an earlier posting.
The first-quarter tally for all visitor markets was 4.35 million, up 49.6 percent year-on-year. In the opening three months of 2019, the visitor aggregate had been 4.69 million.
March was the best month in the first quarter this year, with 1.48 million arrivals, up 2.8 percent month-on-month, and 94.9 percent of March 2019.
China was top individual contributor to Singapore’s visitor arrivals in the three months to March 31 this year, with 785,890 entries. That was up 530.9 percent year-on-year, and 81.8 percent of the 960,340 Chinese tourists received in the first quarter of 2019.
Indonesia was the second-largest feeder market in the first quarter this year, with 664,760 entries. That was up 33.8 percent year-on-year, and 91.7 percent of the 724,780 Indonesian tourists received in first-quarter 2019.
Singapore is home to a casino resort duopoly: Resorts World Sentosa, operated by a unit of Genting Singapore Ltd; and Marina Bay Sands, run by a unit of Las Vegas Sands Corp.
