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By Li Jiahui
SINGAPORE, September 26 (ANI): When the Formula 1 circus enters Singapore this week for the 13th Singapore F1 Grand Prix, which runs from September 30 to October 2, it will mark Singapore as a series of A strong return to world-class events. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought its tourism industry to a screeching halt.
With pent-up demand for the exciting live event, crowds from all over the world will flock to the city-state, a number not seen since the first Singapore Grand Prix in 2008, when 300,000 people attended. Tournament, sold out. Since then, the best three-day attendance was 268,000 in 2019. COVID-19 shuts down the world’s only street circuit night race in 2020 and 2021.
It is estimated that around 40% of the Grand Prix audience are foreigners, and no doubt many will be from India.
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Indians currently constitute the second largest group of tourists to Singapore by country of origin. As of August, Singapore received 2.96 million tourists. Of these, 378,490 were from India. Indonesia was Singapore’s largest source of foreign tourists with 588,870 arrivals as of August. Malaysia came in third with 264,170, followed by Australia (258,670) and Vietnam (177,510).
About 725,000 foreigners entered Singapore each month in July and August, the highest level so far this year. At this rate, if global tourism continues to grow, Singapore is expected to reach around 6 million tourists by the end of the year.
COVID-19 has shut down Singapore’s tourism industry entirely. Businesses that depended on tourism, including restaurants, hotels and retail stores, were closed (some permanently) and workers in the industry had to look for other forms of employment.
If you don’t count the first three months of 2020 — just before the pandemic forced borders to close around the world — Singapore received just 90,000 foreign tourists in 2020. 2021 is slightly better, with 330,000 visitors. At its peak in 2019, Singapore was the fifth most visited city in the world with more than 19.1 million tourists, surpassing more glamorous cities like New York and Paris.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is not sitting still during the Covid-19 winter tourism season in Singapore. Instead, it continues to attack to ensure that Singapore remains the first choice for potential foreign tourists. STB’s regional offices have launched new initiatives to attract fans and strengthen Singapore’s brand image globally. It also works with technology, media and tourism players in key source markets to jointly promote Singapore as a destination for future travellers.
Since the start of the pandemic, STB has been working closely with industry partners to forge new paths for tourism. In February 2020, the Tourism Recovery Action Task Force (TRAC), comprising private and public sector tourism leaders, was formed to develop and implement a joint recovery strategy. TRAC helped identify the opportunities presented by COVID-19, facilitated and implemented measures to jointly develop a recovery plan, and boosted confidence in Singapore’s tourism industry.
During the tourism off-season, various training and upskilling activities have been carried out to support industry workers as tourism resumes. These include a job redesign program to train existing staff in new skills that will enable them to redeploy into areas other than their majors.
The result of STB’s aggressive efforts to reposition Singapore as Asia’s top tourist and business destination has been a rapid recovery in the industry as borders open.
In the first three months of 2022, Singapore hosted more than 150 local and international events, attended by more than 37,000 people, according to the tourism board.
Hotels have been busy as arrivals over the past few months have seen tourism rebound as COVID restrictions ease. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that hotel rooms in Singapore are the most expensive in nearly a decade, with a flurry of high-profile events in the coming months.
The latest data from STB shows that since September 2012, the average hotel room rate in July rose nearly 70% year-on-year to S$259 (US$185) per night. Prices in Singapore are still reasonable compared to their regional counterparts.
Visitor numbers are likely to continue to grow with a series of international business, entertainment and sporting events planned for the rest of the year. The Formula 1 Grand Prix is ​​just one of them.
Just before the Grand Prix, Singapore will host the Milken Institute Asia Summit and the Forbes Global CEO Conference. Also in the pipeline are the Asia Pacific Oil Conference and several crypto events in September, followed by the Asian Games Show in October, the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, and the World One Health Conference in November.
In terms of entertainment, world-class performers coming to Singapore include Westlife and Green Day during the Grand Prix, as well as Justin Bieber, Maroon Five and Guns N’ Roses later this year.
S Iswaran, Minister of Transport and Minister of Trade Relations, Singapore, who was the key government official in charge of the Grand Prix, firmly believes that the Grand Prix is ​​an important focal point for tourists, global events and business meetings, and enhances Singapore’s vibrant lifestyle globally the reputation of the city.
Singapore in January extended its hosting rights to the Grand Prix for another seven years until 2028. It is reported that STB pays about $35 million annually for the hosting rights, with operating costs of about $100 million. Organisers say Singapore has benefited about US$1.1 billion from increased tourism revenue since its inception.
Speaking at a community event in late August, Iswaran said: “Overall, our tourism industry has benefited, especially the hospitality sector – so hotels, air travel, restaurants and our retail sector as well. “Overall, I think this has had a positive impact on the wider hospitality and other industries related to Formula 1.” (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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