Singapore visitor arrivals fall month on month to 57,140 in January; hotel takings down

SINGAPORE'S international visitor numbers tumbled in January on the month before, as border restrictions were tightened amid the global spread of the Omicron variant.

Meanwhile, hotel revenue fell by 23.1 per cent month on month to S$101.2 million, from S$131.6 million previously - though industry takings were still up by 43.9 per cent year on year.

The Republic welcomed 57,140 arrivals in January, down by 38.4 per cent from 92,790 in the month prior, according to the latest Singapore Tourism Board (STB) figures.

The visitor numbers are a jump from 23,370 in the year before, but still far below the 1.69 million recorded in January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted international travel.

Most of January's travellers hailed from nearby countries with Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) for quarantine-free entry - notably India (11,430), Indonesia (5,860) and Malaysia (5,200).

Still, the number of arrivals from these markets was roughly halved from the month before, as Singapore suspended VTL ticket sales from Dec 23, 2021 to Jan 20, 2022.

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Hotel occupancies fell to 57.8 per cent in January, from 72.1 per cent the month before, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) slipped to S$96.37, from S$162.61 previously. The average room rate stood at S$166.79, down from S$225.57 in the month prior.

Steve Carroll, who leads CBRE’s Asia-Pacific hotels team, said that the month-on-month slump is seasonal, and added that corporate and leisure travel should both grow in 2022 - even as “staycation business will continue to provide strong demand for hotels, especially those with expansive facilities and family-friendly offerings” until the full-blown tourism recovery kicks in.

But Alan Cheong, executive director of research and consultancy at Savills, fingered "the lagging performance of the mid-tier and economy class hotels" for the retreat in rates.

"The luxury segment may have better pricing power because staycations have largely been concentrated in this grade of hotels," he remarked. "Given the relative inelasticity of this group of local guests, the luxury hotel should continue to perform relatively better."

But "it is quite clear that the visitor arrivals have begun trending up and it is not going to be easy to reverse that, short of the emergence of even more deadly strains", Cheong commented.

Analysts highlighted the latest Formula One (F1) Singapore Grand Prix contract extension as a boon for tourism and hospitality.

Singapore recently bagged a deal to host the night race until 2028 - which Calvin Li, head of transaction advisory services for JLL Hotels & Hospitality Asia-Pacific, said “should boost opportunities for the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions industry in Singapore to slowly recover in 2022, with more in-person events to be organised throughout the year”.

Meanwhile, Wong Xian Yang, Singapore research head at Cushman & Wakefield, highlighted the year-on-year growth in visitor numbers, saying: “The restoration of VTL quotas and new VTLs would have a positive impact on visitor arrivals and underpin market recovery.”

Li added: “When compared to January 2021, the beginning of the year was characterised by an impressive improvement of RevPAR of more than 46 per cent, reflecting the impact of increasing number of VTLs in place.”

The STB defines international visitors as people who spend less than a year in Singapore. It excludes returning residents and pass holders, Malaysians arriving by land, non-resident air and sea crew, and air transit passengers.