Travellers look at the flight departure schedule on the screen at Singapore Changi airport on December 7, 2022.
Roslan Rahman | Afp | Getty Images
International tourist arrivals to Singapore more than doubled in 2023, surging to 13.6 million compared to 2022’s figure of 6.3 million.
The Singapore Tourism Board said this in line with its forecast, and was at 71% of 2019 levels, the last full year before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
Indonesia topped the ranking for the most amount of tourists to Singapore at 2.3 million, followed by China and Malaysia at 1.4 million and 1.1 million respectively, according to STB data.
“Other key markets that posted buoyant recovery included Australia, South Korea and USA,” the tourism board added.
Separately, visitors also spent more time in Singapore compared to before the pandemic.
The average length of stay in 2023 was approximately 3.8 days, compared to 3.4 days for the same period in 2019.
STB Chief Executive Melissa Ow said in the release: “The robust performance in 2023 signals a promising recovery for tourism, in line with increasing flight capacity and growth in international travel demand.”
Tourism receipts are estimated to reach between 24.5 billion to 26 billion Singapore dollars ($18.28 billion to $19.4 billion) for the whole of 2023, surpassing STB’s forecast of between SG$18 billion to SG$21 billion set out in 2023.
From January to September last year, tourism receipts across all spend categories have either exceeded or recovered close to pre-pandemic levels, compared with the same period in 2019.
Moving forward, STB expects the tourism sector to continue recovering, driven by improved global flight connectivity and capacity as well as the implementation of the mutual 30-day visa-free travel between China and Singapore.
As such, the tourism board forecasts that the international visitor arrivals to Singapore are expected to reach around 15 to 16 million, bringing in approximately SG$26 billion to SG$27.5 billion in tourism receipts.
