Singapore will continue to vie for Chinese market share: STB chief

Strategy includes investing in Tier 2 cities; visa-free scheme should boost arrivals

- Anjali Raguraman

Tourist arrivals from China have not bounced back to numbers chalked up before the Covid-19 pandemic, unlike other key markets such as Australia and India, but the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is bullish that this is just a matter of time.

One reason for the confidence is that weekly flights between Singapore and China have recovered to 100 per cent of pre-pandemic levels since end-January 2024, said STB chief executive Melissa Ow.

"For us, that is a great signal as to how airlines are also reading and interpreting market demand signals - it is overall a positive picture," Ms Ow said in an exclusive interview with The Straits Times on Feb 1.

With the mutual 30-day, visafree arrangement between China and Singapore kicking off on Feb 9, the authorities expect an imminent boost in visitors from China, an im-

portant market whose absence has been keenly felt.

Pre-pandemic, China was Singapore's top source of tourists, hitting a peak of 3.6 million arrivals in 2019.

But since then, the Chinese have increasingly spent their tourist dollars at home.

In 2023, China accounted for 1.4 million visitors here still enough for second place, ahead of Malaysia (1.1 million), but far short of top market Indonesia (2.3 million).

This is only a glimpse of the recovery to come, with STB expecting more of an uptick in 2024, said Ms Ow.