S'pore faces imminent hotel room shortage

VISITOR arrivals in Singapore are expected to increase this year through 2018, underpinned by new attractions and major events the country is hosting, but the hotel room supply here is not rising quickly enough.

"Our projections revealed that hotel occupancies will remain extremely tight, rising from 80 per cent to 91 per cent from 2014 to 2018 respectively. We will expect hoteliers to raise room rates given the severity of the hotel room crunch situation developing here," Chesterton Singapore said in a report released yesterday.

"As such, we strongly suggest that the government review its policy and release more hotel sites for sale under the government land sales programme (GLS) sooner rather than later."