Between 12 and 13 million tourists are expected to visit the city-state this year, bringing with them tourism receipts of around 23 billion SGD (Singapore dollars), according to the Trade, Industry and Education minister S Iswaran.
The minister’s department has claimed that Singapore is well on track to achieve these figures, which would set a new record for the island’s tourism industry. The growth is due in part to “our investments in software to enhance productivity and quality”, the minister said.
He added that Singapore is in a prime position to exploit this growth. He said that Singapore can “position themselves for the next phase of growth while riding Asia’s momentum through innovation and greater productivity” at a meeting of the Singapore Tourism Board Conference.
The minister also asked that country’s tourist industry continue to press for process and product innovation so that they can meet the needs of increasingly affluent and sophisticated travelers to the country.
There were 11.6 million visitors to Singapore last year, which itself was a 20% increase on the number of arrivals in 2009. Tourism receipts also rose spectacularly in the previous year, rising by 49% to a total of SGD 18.8 billion.
Singapore has been ranked as the 10th most competitive overall out of more than 139 world economies by the World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report.