In 2008, Singapore welcomed some 10.12mn visitors, a decline of 1.6% year-on-year (y-o-y). This figurewas just below BMI’s forecast of 10.20mn. Indonesia (1,765,000), China (1,079,000), Australia(833,000), India (778,000) and Malaysia (647.000) were Singapore’s five largest source markets over theyear.
BMI had noted that the decline in visitor numbers over June 2008 had represented the first month offalling visitor numbers since March 2004. Clearly, this month marked the start of a decline in visitornumbers as tourists cut back on discretionary spending. Indeed, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB)attributed the drop in in-bound tourism numbers to the impact of the global economic slowdown onconsumer sentiment and discretionary spending. For 2008, tourism revenues totalled some SGD14.8bn, inline with BMI’s forecast.
Difficult Operating Environment For Tourism Companies
The current global economic slowdown is providing a challenging backdrop for companies operatingwithin the Singaporean tourism industry at present. Hotel occupancy rates in Singapore are falling anddomestic airline Singapore Airlines saw a 43% fall in its net profits over the third quarter of FY08/09.As such, BMI will continue to monitor the situation in Singapore to see if any further changes to ourtourism forecasts prove necessary.
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