It what may be a sign of Singapore’s declining appeal as a travel destination, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) revealed that the number of visitor arrivals dropped by 3.1 percent last year, the first decline since 2009.
Tourist volume dropped to 15.1 million visitors, hurt by the sharp fall in the number of Chinese vacationers and fears of aviation disasters in the region, including the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The new law that passed in China that cracked down on uber-cheap holiday packages, in addition to the visa liberalisation in other Asian countries may have contributed to the decline.
However, tourists have been staying longer and spending more, aiding in tourism receipts as it stayed similar to 2013 at $23.5 billion.
STB however are hard at work to make sure that visitor arrivals increase exponentially this year by really milking out the SG50 celebrations cash cow.
Photo: William Cho via Flickr
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