Singapore tourist arrivals climb, continue to surpass one million in April

SINGAPORE’S international visitor arrivals continued to exceed one million in April, for the second straight month this year and the second time since the pandemic began in 2020.

Tourism arrivals jumped to 1.13 million in April, up from 1.02 million recorded in the preceding month, based on the latest figures from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Monday (May 22). The month’s arrival numbers set a new post-pandemic record, even though it remained below the 1.7 million visitors recorded in January 2020, before the pandemic.

Mainland China was again in fifth place as a top source of visitors in April, with 90,725 visitors hailing from there, compared with 60,888 in March. At 49 per cent, it marked the fastest month-on-month growth among Singapore’s top five source countries, said Cushman & Wakefield head of research Wong Xian Yang.

“Barring unforeseen circumstances, China could potentially reclaim her position as the top source country by the end of 2023,” he said.

Noting travel recovery’s ”exponential trend from a low base” since China’s international borders reopened in January, DBS analyst Geraldine Wong said: “China-origin arrivals was at 9 per cent of 2019 levels in January and has since ramped up to about 30 per cent in April 2023.”

She expects that, with notable supply side constraints from China airlines and lagged effects from passport renewals among Chinese citizens, the Chinese tourists’ return will make a more meaningful recovery towards end-Q2 2023 and beyond.

CIMB economist Song Seng Wun said visitor arrivals from Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau) will continue to be a major contributor of tourists. Tourist arrivals from Greater China crossed 100,000 in March 2023 for the first time since pre-pandemic January 2020, he noted.

Indonesia, for the 13th month, remained the top source of visitors to Singapore, recording 220,067 visitors in April – higher than the 171,507 visitors in the previous month. The next-largest source country, Malaysia, posted 98,190 visitors, up from 97,835 in March.

Coming in third for the second month in a row was India, with 97,029 visitors in April. This was more than 75,338 in the month before, and higher than Australia’s 92,937 visitors in April. In March, 74,268 visitors came from Australia.

In the year to date, Singapore has recorded some 4.04 million visitor arrivals, against the 12 million to 14 million arrivals that STB expects to hit in the full year.

Singapore’s tourism data so far has been in line with this forecast, said industry watchers, noting that remaining months will be supported by the return of Chinese traffic, expanding international flight capacity and upcoming events.

“All it takes is an average of one million visitor arrivals every month from April 2023 onwards, on the back of a steady stream of visitors coming to this Little Red Dot for work or leisure,” said Song, highlighting “a long list of events”, including Singapore Maritime Week and FHA-Food & Beverage 2023.

Going forward, visitor arrivals are expected to trend upwards. DBS’ Wong added: “As travel seasonality gets back into play, the first quarter will likely be the weakest travel quarter for the year, with the seasonal peak quarters being Q2 and Q4.”