Singapore's visitor arrivals from China are slowly inching back towards pre-pandemic numbers.
Demand from Chinese travellers has spiked - even doubling for Golden Week - and is going strong till the end of the year.
“It’s a short flight away, and it helps that people here speak the language too,” he said, adding that Singapore had piqued their interest after seeing information about it online. As Singapore works to catch up to its 2019 peak of 3.6 million visitor arrivals, it has steadily built up its hotel room supply and airport capacity. Seven new hotels are expected to be completed in 2024, and another nine in 2025, adding about 3,300 new rooms.
In July alone – the start of China’s summer travel period – 413,000 Chinese visitors came to Singapore, exceeding the 390,000 in 2019. About 1.9 million visitors from China arrived in the first seven months of 2024. This is 85 per cent of pre-Covid figures, with 2.2 million visitors during the same period in 2019.
Travel platform Klook said the number of Chinese travellers making bookings for services like tours and attractions, almost doubled in June and August, compared to March to May. Mr Jeremiah Wong, the agency’s assistant director for marketing communications, noted that the arrangement “significantly enhances convenience by eliminating the need for complex visa applications for Chinese travellers to Singapore”.
He added that demand from such travellers ranges across its brands, from higher-end properties such as Swissotel The Stamford to strong interest in its “more accessible options” such as the newly-opened Mercure Icon Singapore City Centre in Club Street, and Pullman Singapore Hill Street near City Hall.
“We anticipate a strong travel period in December 2024, with Chinese carriers likely adjusting capacity to match demand based on seasonal factors,” said Mr Patel, adding that cargo and passenger traffic tend to be stronger in the latter half of the year for Asia.Several travel platforms told The Straits Times that many Singaporeans are choosing to head to China and spend a longer time there during the end-of-year peak holiday season.
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