Chinese top S’pore visitors list
ACCOMPANIED by her parents and two young sons, Beijing resident Amber Wen flew into Singapore for a twoweek vacation earlier this month, undeterred by the incessant rain from the northeast monsoon.
Sentosa, Marina Bay and the Science Centre were among the attractions on the must-see list of the 34-yearold psychologist, who first came to Singapore in 2013.
“I was here for work for a few days and fell in love with the country, especially how safe and kid-friendly the city and attractions were,” said Wen, whose sons are aged two and five.
“There is peace of mind from not having to worry about errant traffic or my children going missing, even at a crowded spot.”
Like Wen, throngs of Chinese travellers are a familiar sight, both globally and in Singapore where they topped the list of visitors last year.
Already the world’s biggest spenders, they travelled with even bigger wallets last year.
They spent 19 percent more than in 2016, exceeding the South Koreans’ 12 percent rise, the World Tourism Organisation said.
The increase spells good news for Singapore.
More than 2.7 million Chinese came to Singapore from January to October last year, representing almost one-fifth of all visitor arrivals, according to latest figures.
Also, they account for almost 18 percent of tourism receipts for the first half of last year, putting them on track to be top spenders for the third year in a row.
Their role is not insignificant as Singapore’s tourism sector provided jobs, directly and indirectly, to more than 320,000 people last year, and contributed about 4.5 percent to gross domestic product.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) attributes the strong growth partly to its intensified efforts to woo travellers from China’s tier-one and -two cities. It has, for instance, built partnerships with ma- jor Chinese tech companies such as Baidu, Tencent and Meituan-Dianping, said STB regional director for eastern and southern China Low See Peng.
Going beyond Asia-Pacific
But the boom in Chinese tourist dollars may be difficult for Singapore to sustain.
After more than a decade of rapid increase, the outbound market will see low to moderate expansion, China Tourism Academy president Dai Bin had forecast.
A Financial Times survey of Chinese tourists last year found spending on shopping overseashad fallen, particularly for luxury goods such as watches and electronics. More Chinese are also becoming independent travellers keen to go beyond the Asia-Pacific.
Although Singapore ranked eighth on the list of most recently visited nations, it did not make the list of countries travellers wanted to go to next. The top five dream destinations were in Europe.
Singapore, however, benefited indirectly from geopolitical tensions between China and two of its traditional tourism markets last year, said experts.
Mainland visitors to Taiwan have been declining since President Tsai Ing Wen took office – falling by about onethird, said the island’s tourism office.
Similarly Seoul, which saw a fall of over 40 percent – due to a missile systems deployment row with Beijing. Since last March, China has unofficially banned group tours to South Korea.
Asked if the STB is concerned about the growing reliance on China, Low noted that “our top 15 markets are a good mix of short-and longhaul markets, and we continue to see good growth from markets such as Indonesia and India, as well as emerging markets like Myanmar”.
At the same time, STB will continue to woo the Chinese, she said, by promoting Singapore as a choice destination for family travel, and curating tours to incorporate richer storytelling and authentic local experiences.
This sits well with Beijing’s Wen, whose visit to Singapore was a parent-and-child education camp, a growing trend in China.
Her older son attended a kindergarten on weekdays for immersion in an Englishspeaking environment and interaction with local kids, and the family would take in the sights in the evenings and weekends.
She said: “I’m always on the lookout for destinations for my kids to experience the country while interacting with kids from there.”