'Visa-free, but not cost-free': China's media abuzz about prices in Singapore Se BALLO

Despite concerns, there was a spike in Chinese visitors to S’pore during the New Year holidays

- Aw Cheng Wei

When marketing planner Johnnie Zhu, 28, visited Singapore for a day over the New Year weekend, he blew his budget by 30 per cent on the back of higher-than-expected food and transport costs.

Mr Zhu, who was in transit on his way to Mount Bromo in Indonesia's East Java, spent about 1,500 yuan (S$280) in that one day in Singapore. In Indonesia, he spent 500 to 600 yuan a day.

"I found the souvenirs at the airport particularly expensive," he told The Sunday Times.

Mr Zhu bought three small Merlion soft toys - each the size of about half a palm - for around 100 yuan and a keychain for 50 yuan for family and friends back home.

He lowered his costs by booking a cheaper room at the same hotel in Little India he had stayed at in 2019, on his first trip to Singapore.

"The price difference was about 300 yuan more for the same room, so I booked a cheaper option this time," said Mr Zhu, who lives in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-western China.

The high cost of visiting Singapore has become a hot topic of discussion in Chinese media after a visa waiver scheme kicked in on Feb 9. Bookings for travel have gone up now that ordinary passport holders of both China and Singapore can visit each other's countries for up to 30 days without the need for a visa. Previously, tourists from China paid 300 yuan to get a visa to enter Singapore.

The hashtag "visa-free travel to Singapore could result in visitors becoming poor if not careful" became the most searched-for topic on microblogging platform Weibo, two days after the new visa regime was announced on Jan 25.

The hashtag had 310 million views and sparked more than 9,000 discussion threads.

Some even discussed whether Singapore's fines, such as a $500 fine for eating on MRT trains or a $1,000 fine for smoking in prohibited places, spitting or littering in public, made the Lion City prohibitively expensive.