SINGAPORE: Tourist arrivals improved 1% to Singapore reaching 4.7 million during the first quarter of 2019, but travel spend slipped 4.8% to record SGD6.5 billion.
Singapore Tourism Board released its Q1 report earlier this month with China the biggest source market delivering 960,000 visits followed by Indonesia (725,000), India (300,000), Malaysia (283,000) and Australia (263,000). The five top markets accounted for 54% of all arrivals.
Gazetted hotel room revenue for Q1 2019 came in at an estimated SGD1.0 billion, up 4.3% year-on-year.
Average occupancy rate registered 86%, a 0.6 percentage point decrease, while the average room rate grew by 1% to SGD222. Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) held steady at 0.3% year-on-year to SGD189 in Q1 2019
While tourism revenue reached SGD6.5 billion, it represented a decline of 4.8%. Declines registered in all revenue categories during Q1 2019. Accommodation declined 12%, Food & Beverage (7%), Shopping (7%) and Sightseeing, Entertainment & Gaming (3%).
Tourism revenue earned from China reached SGD1,093 million down 1% but Indonesia the second largest earner with SGD732 million improved by 7%. India, the third-highest in revenue with SGD338 million recorded a decline of 6%. The top three markets contributed 43% excluding revenue from sightseeing, entertainment and gaming (SEG).
Among the top 10 tourism revenue markets, Indonesia (7%), USA (15%) and Japan (5%) registered the highest absolute year-on-year growth (excluding SEG)
For country-specific revenue estimates, SEG earnings are excluded due “to the commercial sensitivity of the information”.
The sightseeing, entertainment and gaming sectors earned overall SGD1,865 million an increase of 2%.
China led other markets far behind in the shopping category with a 50% share of total spend, followed by 17% for accommodation and 7% food and beverage. Indonesia scored 29% for shopping, 13% for accommodation, 8% for food and drinks and 51% for “other categories.”
