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About four to six million international visitors will be expected in Singapore this year as global travel recovers, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Jul. 14.

Almost 12 times more visitors for first half of 2022

According to a Jul. 14 press release from STB, Singapore clocked 1.5 million visitor arrivals in the first half of 2022 alone, nearly 12 times more compared to the same period in 2021 (119,000).

It was reported at the start of this year that Singapore had recorded just 330,000 international visitor arrivals (IVA) last year.

STB added that an estimated S$1.3 billion in tourism receipts was recorded in the first quarter of 2022, a 213 per cent year-on-year increase over the same period last year.

STB shared that it "remained of the view" that tourism would recover to pre-Covid levels by the mid-2020s.

Top visitors from Indonesia, India, Malaysia

The top five visitor markets from Jan. to Jun. 2022 were Indonesia (282,000), India (219,000), Malaysia (139,000), Australia (125,000) and the Philippines (81,000) respectively.

Visitors from Indonesia, India and Malaysia registered the highest year-on-year growth in numbers.

According to an infographic by STB, the average duration of visitors' stay in Singapore also more than doubled, staying for about 7.1 days, compared to 3.4 days in 2019.

"Cautiously optimistic"

While tourism flows might face some challenges in the remainder of the year, STB added that it remained "cautiously optimistic" about the year ahead.

The possible headwinds mainly stem from a "volatile global political and economic environment, as well as the evolving health situation".

However, STB stated that it still anticipated a "strong performance" for the tourism industry in 2022, given a "strong pipeline of events" such as the Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2022 and the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.

New attractions such as Hell’s Museum at Haw Par Villa, the Museum of Ice Cream, SkyHelix Sentosa, and the “Avatar: The Experience” at Gardens by the Bay are also set to attract more visitors, STB added.

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Top image via Unsplash