Singapore’s July visitor arrivals grow to 1.4 million on strong return of Chinese travellers

SINGAPORE’S international visitor arrivals climbed to 1.42 million in July, driven by a stronger return of Chinese travellers, which more than doubled from June.

July’s reading was up from the 1.13 million recorded in the previous month, according to the latest data from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Wednesday (Aug 16). It is also slightly less than double the 726,739 visitors recorded in the corresponding month in 2022.

Overall visitor arrivals reached 7.7 million year to date, noted Wong Xian Yang, head of research for Singapore and South-east Asia at Cushman & Wakefield, in a sign that Singapore is on track to exceed 13 million visitors in 2023 – more than double the 6.3 million visitor count recorded last year, and within STB’s forecast range of 12 million to 14 million visitors.

“While there may be monthly fluctuations due to seasonal factors, we anticipate a general uptrend in visitor arrivals for the rest of 2023 amid continued demand for leisure travel and recovery of airline capacity,” he added.

In the coming months, global-scale meetings and events taking place here – such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix in September – are expected to further boost Singapore’s tourism arrival numbers in the second half of 2023, said DBS analyst Geraldine Wong.

But Govinda Singh, executive director of hotels and leisure for Asia at Colliers International, cautioned that growth could be at a more subdued pace given the current economic climate in key source markets.

In July, visitor arrivals were predominantly driven by a stronger return of Chinese travellers, which more than doubled from the preceding month, said Cushman & Wakefield’s Wong.

China regained its spot as the top source of visitors to Singapore in July, with 231,326 tourists visiting from the country. This was more than the 113,290 Chinese tourists in June.

The pick-up in Chinese visitor arrivals to Singapore came as a surprise to DBS’ Wong, given the lacklustre headline news regarding China’s outbound travel. This had suggested that China’s recovery was more domestic than international, with domestic trips already surpassing 2019 levels during the Labour Day holidays in May.

In contrast, the stronger return of Chinese visitors in July was in line with Singh’s expectations that outbound travel from the country will pick up in the second half of 2023. “We would expect this trend to continue as more flights are added, together with the welcome return of group travel.”

DBS’ Wong also noted that budget-conscious travellers have been waiting on the sidelines for a moderation in travel costs, and the further easing of outbound flight capacity and group travel will help to further boost demand.

In addition, aside from the traffic from China, there was broad-based growth from other major source countries in July, except for India and Malaysia.

Indonesia was the next-largest source country, from which 229,886 visitors hailed in July. This was up from the 217,051 travellers in June.

Australia clinched third position in July, with 98,406 tourists, up from the 90,770 in June.

India and Malaysia took the fourth and fifth spots, with 93,054 and 84,876 visitors hailing from the respective countries. This was fewer than the 114,588 travellers from India and 85,944 from Malaysia the previous month.