Singapore welcomes them back, but a full return of Chinese tourists is not likely in 2023, Singapore Tourism Board directors said at a Tuesday press conference.
Singapore Tourism Board CEO Keith Tan cited limited flight capability and the speed of reopening China’s borders as a few of the the reason why Chinese tourists are not expected to totally recuperate this year.
Tan told CNBC that the recovery in travel from China was unlikely to exceed 60% of pre-Covid levels by the top of the year.
“We’re hoping to get 30% to 60% of where we were within the full year of 2023 in comparison with the full year of 2019,” he said. “In our most ambitious and aggressive scenarios, we hope that by the top of 2023 the whole lot will probably be back to normal.”
Currently, the variety of flights from Singapore to China is only 10% of what it was before Covid. Unlike other countries in Asia, Singapore has not imposed latest Covid-related restrictions on travelers from China.
Singapore’s tourism industry is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, in keeping with the tourism board.
Hong Kong competition
Tan said he welcomes competition from Hong Kong for MICE – meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.
Hong Kong will “dedicate a lot of resources to secure and anchor a whole range of events,” he said.
“I welcome this competition. I feel it’s good and I’m glad Hong Kong is back in business… but it surely also means we now have to work harder to make sure Singapore has a good mixture of events and investments.”
Juliana Kua, deputy director general of the Singapore Tourism Board, added that “a large variety of MICE events are coming to draw Chinese corporate travelers.”
Kua said the trend seen amongst Chinese travelers is small-group bookings with customized itineraries, slightly than pre-packaged package tours. She said the Singapore Tourism Board is targeting these travelers.
In line with statistics from the Singapore Tourism Board, in 2022, foreign tourist arrivals to Singapore reached 6.3 million, which is 33% of the 2019 level. About 1.1 million visitors got here from Indonesia, which is the very best variety of arrivals of any country.
Initial estimates of tourism receipts range from S$13.8 to 14.3 billion ($10.4 to $10.8 billion), about half of 2019 tourism revenue.