Visitor arrivals to Singapore plummeted to 2.7 million last year, the lowest in about four decades, following unprecedented global travel restrictions and border closures amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
That is an 85.7 per cent drop from arrivals for the whole of 2019, with nearly all visits last year taking place during the first two months, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) yesterday .
Tourism receipts also tumbled 78.4 per cent to $4.4 billion in the first three quarters of last year, from the same period in 2019.
"The numbers are not a huge surprise, considering that we effectively closed our borders to nearly all forms of international tourism," STB chief executive Keith Tan told The Straits Times. The fall was mitigated by record levels of tourism in January last year, he said.
"So that had propelled the numbers (in 2020), otherwise the decline would have been even worse."
While mass international travel is unlikely to resume in a major way this year, Mr Tan said the STB will continue to work with industry partners to prepare for a recovery.
Domestic demand has now become critical.
The SingapoRediscovers vouchers (SRV) scheme was kick-started last December in a bid to support local tourism.
Since last month, more than 300,000 Singaporeans have used the SRV scheme to make bookings with Singapore hotels, attractions and tours, resulting in more than $35.9 million in SRV redemptions and out-of-pocket payments.
The STB said that tourism businesses had played a key role in Singapore's battle against Covid-19, with hotels offering their properties for various accommodation purposes, including government quarantine facilities, swab isolation facilities and stay-home notice dedicated facilities (SDFs).
More than 70 hotels have served as SDFs at various points since March last year. As at last December, the SDFs had accommodated more than 80,000 people on stay-home notice.
The outlook for international travel is also expected to remain bleak this year.
"Even with the development of several vaccines, it will take time for mass leisure travel and traveller confidence to return," said the STB yesterday, adding that it expects tourism arrivals and receipts to remain weak this year.
Mr Chew Kian Beng, course chair for the diploma in hospitality and tourism management at the Temasek Polytechnic School of Business, said Singapore actually did better than expected last year.
He said: "Unlike other countries, we do not have a large domestic hinterland which would buffer the tourism numbers for a more rosy picture."
Mr Kevin Wee, senior hospitality and tourism lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic School of Business Management, said the fall mirrors the World Tourism Organisation's figures, which recorded an 84 per cent decline in visitor arrivals for Asia and the Pacific region last year.
He noted the STB's efforts to reopen tourism - from Oct 1 last year, it began accepting applications from organisers to pilot Mice (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) events with up to 250 attendees.
"However, with the resurgence of Covid-19 cases worldwide, caution must be taken when encouraging tourist arrivals," said Mr Wee.
