Singapore tourism to recover by 2024

Singapore Merlion

Singapore tourism beat forecasts in 2022, which is helping the tourism sector to recover by 2024. 

Singapore welcomed 6.3 million visitors last year, which exceeded the Singapore Tourism Board's (STB) forecast of between 4 to 6 million.

STB's Director of Communications Terence Voon informed that these targets were achieved even when Singapore had quarantine measures during Q1 of 2022, proving that there is "strong pent-up demand" to visit and enjoy Singapore. Tourism contributes around 4% to Singapore's annual GDP, according to the STB.

There were 3.6 million visitors from China in 2019, which makes it the largest contributor to Singapore's tourism before the pandemic. During the phase when strict travel restrictions were in place, China was overtaken by Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Australia, and the Philippines.

"If Singapore were to receive more visitors in 2023 than it did in 2022, we could expect a decent boost from the resurgent services sector to act as a counterweight to softer domestic demand and slowing global trade," ING said in a report last week.