Tourism receipts in Singapore are projected to reach at least SGD47 billion (US$35.6 billion) in 15 years’ time, and possibly as much as SGD50 billion.
That is according to the city-state’s Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, Grace Fu, in Friday comments as reported by multiple local media outlets.
The lower end of that projected range would represent around 1.6 times more than 2024 tourism receipts that had amounted to SGD29.8 billion for full-year 2024, the latter a record-high figure. That is according to the local media reports.
The top markets supporting Singapore’s tourism spending in 2024 were China, Indonesia and Australia.
Speaking at the Tourism Industry Conference 2025, held at Suntec Singapore, Ms Fu identified business relating to meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) as being one of Singapore’s key pillars for tourism expansion between now and the year 2040.
She described MICE visitors as a “high-growth and quality” segment.
The Singapore authorities are studying the development of a new “MICE hub” in the downtown area of the city-state, which can “leverage the synergies of existing MICE venues and attractions located in the city”, Ms Fu also mentioned at the Friday occasion.
Singapore had a 21.5-percent year-on-year rise in overall visitor volume in 2024 – including a doubling in Chinese tourists – taking the 12-month tally for the city-state to 16.53 million. That is according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board.
The board’s chief executive, Melissa Ow, also spoke at the Friday event. Media outlets cited her saying that by 2040, MICE receipts were forecast to contribute about 10 percent of Singapore’s overall tourism spending, up from about 4 percent currently.
In May last year, the government had laid out its ‘Tourism 2040’ paper for the development of the sector in the next decade-and-a-half.
Singapore has a casino duopoly consisting of Resorts World Sentosa, run by Genting Singapore Ltd, and Marina Bay Sands Ltd, run by a unit of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Both operators are currently expanding and upgrading facilities at their respective complexes.
