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Author: Li Jiahui
SINGAPORE, Jan 3 (ANI): Indian tourists are now the second largest number of tourists arriving in Singapore, overtaking China. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, China was the most visited country by tourists to the island nation.
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One of the major contributors is Indian residents, who are Singapore’s second largest tourist group with 612,300 visitors as of November 2022.
They also stayed the longest, with an average length of stay of 8.61 days compared to an average of 5.19 days. In comparison, Indonesians stayed an average of 4.66 days, Malaysians 4.28 days and Australians 4.05 days.
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With 986,900 tourists as of November, Indonesia was Singapore’s largest source of foreign tourists. Malaysia came in third with 495,470, followed by Australia (476,480) and the Philippines (325,480).
Singapore is set for its best year for tourism since the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down, helped by tourists from Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Australia.
Together, these four countries account for nearly half (48%) of the tiny island nation’s total population, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) as of November.
As of November, 5.37 million foreigners visited Singapore. In July, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said Singapore expects to receive 4 to 6 million tourists in 2022.
Visitor numbers in both October and November were around 816,000. The figure is expected to remain unchanged as December is traditionally a busy month for tourists from Singapore, with arrivals expected to be around 6.2 million.
The figures are a far cry from Singapore’s heyday as the world’s fifth most visited city in the final pre-COVID year of 2019, when it received more than 19.1 million tourists. In that year, Singapore received more than 3.6 million tourists from China, which was then Singapore’s largest source of tourism.
With China announcing last week that it will finally allow its citizens to travel abroad again, it appears Singapore tourism will reach new post-pandemic levels by 2023.
While details are still sketchy, Chinese authorities say that starting Jan. 8, Chinese tourists will no longer need to quarantine after returning home. Before COVID, China was the largest outbound travel market in the world, generating more than $250 billion in annual tourism revenue in 2019. to Reuters.
As China reopens, the last of the world’s major economies to do so, the countries that benefit the most are Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the US, which are among the top 10 destinations for Chinese Tourists before the pandemic. China is the largest source of foreign tourists for these countries, and the lifting of travel restrictions will provide a boost to their economies. For example, tourism accounts for nearly 20 percent of Thailand’s GDP.
“There is no question that mainland China is the spark plug for Thailand’s tourism recovery,” Mr Bill Barnett, managing director of hotel consultancy C9 Hotelworks, told Reuters. “It’s not a question of whether it will happen, it’s just a question of volume and speed.”
In fact, the morning of the announcement in China, they recorded a 254% increase in outbound flight bookings from mainland China compared to the day before, according to travel booking site trip.com. Bookings for inbound flights have surged more than fourfold compared with a year ago.
Singapore was the fastest growing of all destinations, with flight bookings on trip.com soaring sixfold. The other four most popular countries, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand, combined saw a 400% increase. Bookings for long-haul flights to the UK, US and Australia rose sharply.
The upcoming Lunar New Year, which begins on Jan. 21, will be the first time Chinese tourists have been allowed to travel abroad in about three years, with many countries preparing for “revenge” travel during China’s traditional peak tourist season.
However, the expected surge in Chinese tourists is not without its problems due to a reported wave of COVID-19 infections across the country. The health ministry has the authority to say this would increase the risk of the new, deadlier variant spreading. Many countries have announced enhanced COVID-19 measures for travelers from China.
So far, Japan, India, Italy, Israel, Malaysia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and the United States have announced new rules for travelers from China in response to rising cases.
Japan said it would require travelers from China to test negative for COVID-19 on arrival and those who test positive would have to undergo a week of quarantine. Tokyo also plans to restrict airlines from increasing flights to China.
Many others are considering imposing testing requirements.
However, Singapore is sticking to its current travel guidance for travelers from China that they need to be fully vaccinated, as defined by the World Health Organization, or they will have to submit a negative pre-departure COVID-19 test.
James Shen, general manager of Melbourne-based travel agency Odyssey Travel, believes any hopes of a significant rebound in Chinese tourism to Australia during the Lunar New Year holiday may be dashed due to sky-high airfares.
“Flights are still scarce and they book at the last minute,” he told Reuters in a December interview. “I doubt any meaningful rebound will have to wait until next June or July for the tourism boom.” (Arney)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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