Singapore's welcome-back party

BACK in 2019, before "travel restrictions" and "border closures" became catch phrases, Singapore welcomed 19 million visitors. In fact, it was even basking in the glow of strong growth in both visitor arrivals and tourism receipts for a fourth consecutive year.

But 2020 was the year that the pandemic drove international travel to a standstill. Visitor arrivals to Singapore plummeted to 2.7 million visitors, and that was mainly from the first two months of the year.

According to latest figures from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), barely 24,000 people visited Singapore in October this year.