Some 506,000 Filipinos holidayed in S'pore in first 9 months of 2013

Cringeworthy tourist promotional videos work.

Belmont Lay| April 13, 07:26 AM

Some 506,000 Filipino tourists visited Singapore in the first nine months of 2013, the Singapore Tourism Board revealed.

This is a 4 percent increase from the same period in 2012.

The Philippines was Singapore's seventh-largest market for tourists last year and has been among the top seven for the past five years.

The latest figures explain why the STB is trying very hard to continue to make Singapore attractive to more tourists from the Philippines -- even to the extend of sanctioning a tourist promotional video about Singapore catering to Filipinos that was panned locally and internationally.

Kenneth Lim, STB's regional director for South-east Asia II and Oceania, said the Philippines is a "market with good growth potential".

He said: "It is well-connected to Singapore by air and it is a proximity market."

"In our focus group studies, we've found that Filipinos have a good affinity for Singapore and they enjoy coming here," Lim added.

However, Filipino tourists tend to have lower spending power. They prefer basic tour packages that include two- or three-star hotels.

Travel agents here say Universal Studios Singapore and the integrated resorts are major attractions for Filipino tourists.

And another reason why they travel here is partly because they use Singapore as a base to drive to Malaysia or take cruises.

 

Top photo from here

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