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BANGKOK - LAST year was the best in the history of Singapore tourism.
A record 10.3 million tourists came, stayed 38 million nights and blew $13.8 billion.
It was the fourth straight record-breaking year, with the numbers surpassing the year's targets of 10.2 million visitors and $13.6 billion in tourism spending, noted the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Small wonder that STB chief Lim Neo Chian was beaming as he unveiled the latest numbers here yesterday, on the sidelines of the Asean Tourism Forum.
He said the performance was buoyed by strong economic growth in Australia and India, two key sources of tourists, and the growth of low-cost airlines.
He also credited the more aggressive efforts put into marketing Singapore as a destination and the emergence of new offerings, such as malls with global fashion brands like Gap and Banana Republic.
Nine of Singapore's top 10 visitor markets grew.
The number of Australians and Indians arriving made double-digit leaps from 2006 - 11 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, to over 740,000 arrivals from these markets.
The number of tourists from Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States grew more modestly - about 2 per cent each - while the number of Japanese stayed about the same.
Going by the figures, the hotels also did a lot better, in terms of room occupancy rates and their plumped-up takings from raised room rates.
But although this delighted hoteliers, inbound travel agents saw some dark clouds.
They said the boom in the numbers came from business travellers, and that growth in the more price-sensitive leisure market had stagnated, with such travellers put off by the rising room rates.
Mr Allen Tsang, who chairs the inbound committee of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore, said corporate travellers 'were the only ones left who can afford the prices commanded'.
The breakdown for the year's tourism arrivals is not available, but the STB counted 5,000 events for the meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions sector here last year.
CTC Holidays spokesman Jocelyn Su confirmed that the firm had cut short some tours here because its customers were unwilling to pay the much-higher prices:
'Instead of three nights here, we now arrange for some tours to stay one night here, one in Bintan and maybe one in Johor Baru, which gives customers three countries for the same price.'
To these comments, STB chief Mr Lim said he expected the proportion of leisure visitors - now at 60 per cent - to dip, and for more people to come here for business, medical treatment or education.
Business travellers, who now make up 30 per cent of visitors, will swell to 35 per cent; those here for medical services and education should double from the current 10 per cent, he predicted.
Although optimistic about the prospects for this year, he said he was hopeful that the fallout from the global stock selloff would not deepen and hit tourism.
He said he was confident the economic fundamentals were still strong enough to power another good year.
Mr Lim is also banking on the new attractions - the Formula One race and the Singapore Flyer - to continue growing the tourism pie.
He conceded that the room crunch could crimp the growth in tourist arrivals, but pointed out that 10 new hotels would soon add 1,700 rooms to the current 37,000.
He added that the focus now was on encouraging visitors to spend 10-13 per cent more.
weichean@sph.com.sg
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