Singapore likely to end the year with 4 million to 6 million visitors

Alvin Tan Shen Hui spoke at ITB Asia 2022.

Singapore.- Speaking at the opening ceremony of the travel industry trade show ITB Asia 2022, Alvin Tan Shen Hui, Singapore’s minister of state for trade and industry, culture, community and youth, said Singapore’s visitor numbers for the year will likely be between 4 and 6 million.

Alvin Tan Shen Hui said: “Singapore is on track with our visitor arrivals. We will likely end the year with 4 million to 6 million visitors – closer to the higher end of our forecasts. We also expect our tourism receipts for 2022 to hit between SGD10bn [US$7.0bn] and SGD20bn.”

He added: “By year-end, we expect the number of flights in [Singapore] Changi Airport to recover to over 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels. This puts us in a good position in our road to recovery next year.”

In 2019, the last full trading year before the Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore received a record 19.1 million international tourists, according to the Singapore Tourism Board. Mainland China accounted for just over 3.6 million – the largest amount.

Singapore was one of the first countries in the region to relax Covid-19 measures. According to GGRAsia, Las Vegas Sands chairman and chief executive Rob Goldstein said the number of customers at Marina Bay Sands from many source markets had increased.

He said the property should “easily” post annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $2bn “over the next few years” to return to pre-pandemic trading levels. Marina Bay Sands posted net revenue of US$679m for the second quarter, up 107.6 per cent year-on-year, EBITDA rose by 184.8 per cent to US$319m. 

Genting Singapore reported a rise in gaming revenue of 7.3 per cent year-on-year to nearly SGD475.2m for the first half of the year. Net profit fell by 4.3 per to SGD84.4m (US$61.3m) while revenue was up 19.5 per cent to SGD663.1m.