Fewer tourists from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India & China in S'pore in 2024 compared to 2019

The number of regional travellers from some Asian countries to Singapore has not recovered to 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

This is according to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) statistics released on Feb. 4 that announced its 2024 results and 2025 outlook.

The figures were subsequently analysed by CNA.

In a nutshell

Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesia

The number of Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian travellers to Singapore in 2024 was significantly below 2019 levels.

Thai and Vietnamese visitor arrivals in 2024 were also lower as compared to 2023, even though all the other main markets saw year-over-year increases.

Thai

Thai visitor arrivals at Changi in 2024 were 26 per cent below 2019 levels, with a 35 per cent drop in November and 29 per cent drop in December last year.

Vietnamese

Vietnamese travellers experienced the steepest drop, down 33 per cent in 2024 compared with 2019, with a 46 per cent drop in November and 42 per cent drop in December last year.

Indonesian

Indonesian visitor arrivals at Changi were down 16 per cent, and it was down 22 per cent in November and 17 per cent in December last year.

Indian and Chinese

Indian visitor arrivals in 2024 were 13 per cent below 2019 levels.

Chinese visitor arrivals at Changi in 2024 were 3 per cent below 2019 levels, partly due to week demand in November and December last year.

Chinese visitor arrivals were down 20 per cent in November and 23 per cent in December, compared with the same months in 2019.

This was even after Singapore provided visa-free entry for Chinese citizens in February 2024, but other Southeast Asian countries followed suit.

CNA reported that these price-sensitive tourists might have gone elsewhere for their holidays instead of visiting Singapore.

Visitor arrivals back on track

Tourism receipts hit new highs.

Singapore attracted 16.5 million international visitors in 2024 and is projected to attract 17 million to 18.5 million international visitor arrivals in 2025.

STB achieved the top end of its 2024 forecast of 15 million to 16.5 million visitors.

STB forecasts S$29 billion to S$30.5 billion in tourism receipts in 2025, compared with S$27.7 billion in pre-pandemic 2019.

The final figure for 2024, which is not released yet, is expected to exceed S$28 billion.

However, the 18.5 million visitor arrivals in 2025 is still below the full recovery record of 19.1 million from 2019 before the pandemic.

On the other hand, passenger traffic at Changi Airport, which includes arrivals, departures and transits, has almost fully recovered at 67.7 million in 2024.

Traffic in 2025 will likely be 2 to 5 per cent above 2019 levels, but visitor arrivals are not as high or increasing in tandem.

In both November and December, visitor arrivals at Changi were 15 per cent below 2019, while for the entire year, they were 9 per cent lower than pre-pandemic figures.

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