Visitor volume to Singapore grew by 13.7 percent sequentially in the first quarter of 2023, to 2.9 million, according to data issued by the city-state’s tourism board. Measured in year-on-year terms, it was up by more than 1,000 percent, as Singapore had approximately 246,000 visitor arrivals in the first three months of last year, with the travel industry impacted at the time by measures aimed at curbing locally the spread of Covid-19.
The first-quarter 2023 visitor volume figure was about 62.0 percent of the nearly 4.7 million arrivals recorded in the initial three months of 2019, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, showed the official data.
Of the aggregate arrivals in the first quarter 2023, the tally of overnight visitors was 2.20 million, an increase of 12.8 percent on the final quarter in 2022.
Singapore was one of the first jurisdictions in Asia to move to a living-with-Covid-19 strategy, beginning in April last year, which saw dividends in terms of returning international tourists and increased play volume at the city’s two casino resorts.
Singapore is home to a casino resort duopoly: Resorts World Sentosa, operated by Genting Singapore Ltd; and Marina Bay Sands, run by a unit of Las Vegas Sands Corp, which also has an operation in the Macau casino market.
The largest single component of international visitors to Singapore for the first three months of this year came from Indonesia, with almost 497,000 arrivals. Next was Malaysia, with approximately 259,000 arrivals, according to Singapore Tourism Board. Almost 125,000 arrivals were from mainland China, which only began significantly to ease Covid-29-related travel restrictions in January this year.
Keith Tan, the tourism board’s chief executive, said in January that the Singaporean authorities forecast international visitor arrivals into the city-state could at least double in calendar-year 2023, at 12 million to 14 million, relative to the 6.3 million achieved in 2022.
