Singapore Achieves Historical High in Tourism Receipts in 2024

Singapore, 4 February 2025 – Singapore’s tourism sector posted a strong performance in 2024, with Tourism Receipts (TR) likely to reach the upper bound of STB’s 2024 forecast¹, setting a new record in tourism spend. International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) increased by 21% (compared to 2023) to 16.5 million, showing robust growth in visitor arrivals.

Ms Melissa Ow, Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), said, “In 2024, Singapore’s tourism sector posted a strong performance, an affirmation of the industry’s efforts in refreshing our products and experiences, as well as embarking on new collaborations this past year. Collectively, these efforts elevated Singapore’s destination appeal and strengthened the sector’s capabilities and competitiveness.”

2024 Tourism Performance

Tourism receipts reached $22.4 billion between January and September 2024 (an increase of 10% compared to the same period in 2023). All spend categories have shown year-on-year growth, led by Sightseeing, Entertainment & Gaming (SEG) at 25%, followed by Accommodation at 17%. Meanwhile, Food & Beverage (F&B) and Shopping saw a 6% and 5% increase respectively, with other categories such as airfares and business spending contributing to TR as well.

Mainland China, Indonesia, and Australia emerged as the top tourism receipts generating markets, contributing $3.58 billion, $2.13 billion, and $1.44 billion respectively (excluding Sightseeing, Entertainment and Gaming)². Notably, Mainland China and Japan showed strong year-on-year growth in tourism receipts.

Top markets for visitor arrivals were Mainland China (3.08 million), Indonesia (2.49 million) and India (1.20 million). Other markets that exhibited healthy year-on-year growth included Japan, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA, representing a good mix of short, mid and long-haul markets. Contributing factors included the 30-day mutual visa exemption³ with Mainland China, and Singapore’s strong growth in air connectivity. In 2024, Changi Airport had a total international seat capacity of over 41 million, representing a 15% increase compared to 2023 and 98% recovery to 2019⁴.

Other key factors that contributed to the overall growth in visitor arrivals include Singapore's robust year-round calendar of lifestyle events and concerts, which has enhanced the city-state's appeal as a premier tourist destination. Family-friendly attractions at precincts such as Gardens by the Bay, Sentosa, and Mandai Wildlife Reserve, including the Bird Paradise, along with key leisure events like the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2024 and Singapore Art Week, were also instrumental in boosting visitor arrivals and spending across the tourism sector and related industries. Singapore continued to attract quality MICE events, while the cruise industry saw several highlights including notable maiden calls and ships homeporting.

In addition, Singapore’s hotel industry demonstrated positive growth in 2024, with Average Room Rate (ARR) and Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) increasing year-on-year, reaching $276 (1.4% increase compared to 2023 ARR) and $226 (3.0% increase compared to 2023 RevPAR) respectively. Average Occupancy Rate (AOR) was 81.8% in 2024, a 1.3% point increase compared to 80.5% in 2023.  There was an addition of 1,421 new hotel keys, including notable openings such as The Standard Singapore, Into the Woods and Mercure ICON Singapore City Centre.

Please refer to Annex A for tourism performance charts.

2024 Tourism Highlights: Sustaining Growth Through Ongoing Efforts to Enhance Destination Appeal

World-Class Entertainment and Events

Singapore’s robust year-round calendar of events played a pivotal role in elevating Singapore’s international mindshare and reinforcing our position as an attractive leisure and business destination.

World-class concerts by Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift generated substantial economic benefits and enhanced Singapore's global brand, with spillover effects to adjacent tourism industries such as retail, dining and hotels. Other key events included the Singapore and Southeast Asia debut of Disney Garden of Wonder at Gardens by the Bay, pop culture events such as Anime Festival Asia and Singapore Comic Con, and lifestyle and sports events including BLAST Premier World Final 2024, CAPCOM Pro Tour 2024 Super Premier Singapore and the reimagined Singapore Food Festival. 2024 was an exceptional year for world-class entertainment and we will continue to focus on attracting a wide range of events across lifestyle and sports.

Singapore also maintains a track record of hosting high-quality business events. Several significant business events took place in Singapore for the first time in 2024, including Asia Photonics Expo, SuperAI 2024, UTECH Southeast Asia 2024, World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Summit 2024 and GSTC2024 Global Sustainable Tourism Conference. Other large-scale trade shows such as the Singapore Airshow 2024 and Food & Hotel Asia 2024 also added to the diverse calendar of business events. Singapore achieved its highest-ever ranking on the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Worldwide City Rankings 2023, securing second position, an advancement of more than 10 places from its 2022 ranking.

New Attractions and Enhanced Experiences

2024 saw the introduction of several new and enhanced attractions in Singapore.  Highlights included the highly anticipated Asia premiere of the Harry Potter: Visions of Magic exhibition at Resorts World Sentosa; the first official Studio Ghibli exhibition in Singapore The World of Studio Ghibli at Marina Bay Sands’ ArtScience Museum; and the immersive multi-sensory experience Sentosa Sensoryscape. Singapore’s Night Safari also unveiled its first fully sheltered walking trail, the Pangolin Trail, along with a new bull elephant habitat and a mixed-species exhibit called Giants of Asia.

The cruise industry welcomed several maiden calls, including Royal Caribbean International’s Anthem of the Seas, Silversea Cruises’ Silver Nova and Silver Dawn, and Viking Cruises’ Viking Venus, further diversifying Singapore's tourism offerings for both visitors and locals. Singapore also secured renewed commitment of several cruise lines to homeport in Singapore for the longer term, including Resorts World Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and Silversea Cruises. In 2024, Singapore recorded 1.8 million passenger throughput received from 340 ship calls.

Please refer to Annex B for other key MICE and Leisure Events and New Attractions/ Experiences in 2024.

Strategic Partnerships: Elevating Singapore’s Tourism Mindshare

In 2024, STB forged collaborations with like-minded travel platforms, aviation partners and precincts to promote Singapore as a preferred travel destination, drive visitor arrivals and enhance visitor experiences. These partners included:

• a. Digital travel platforms Agoda, Expedia Group, Klook, Mafengwo, Traveloka and Trip.com, as well as a first collaboration with Skyscanner. This collectively helped to develop innovative travel products and curate unique experiences to drive bookings for Singapore and co-ideate improvements to the consumer journey for stopover bookings. In addition, the partnerships with Skyscanner and Mafengwo showcase how technology like GenAI and machine learning can be used to enhance understanding of travellers, which in turn drives visitation to Singapore.

• b. International travel agencies like Japan’s JTB and HIS, which collaborated together for the first time on a joint sales promotion for Singapore; Australia’s Helloworld Travel; and Europe’s Amadeus, Travelport and Urlaubsguru; which will help boost visitor arrivals from key markets in the next few years.   

• c. Aviation partners such as AirAsia, Changi Airport Group, Scoot, Singapore Airlines and new partner Air India, to enhance connectivity and inspire travel to Singapore through targeted marketing initiatives.

• d. Precinct partnerships with Marina Bay Sands and UOB Bank, and with Sentosa Development Corporation, Resorts World Sentosa and DBS Bank to elevate and drive awareness of offerings and programming at the Marina Bay and Sentosa precincts, enriching the overall visitor experience in Singapore.

Branded Entertainment Collaborations

In response to shifting consumer preferences towards branded entertainment in film and music, STB sealed partnerships in these areas to showcase Singapore in engaging ways. In 2024, STB collaborated with OneRepublic and Universal Music Singapore on a video that spotlighted the band’s inspiration behind the track titled “Singapore”, featured in their latest album “Artificial Paradise”. 2024 also saw a three-year MOU with STB and leading South Korean TV network JTBC to support production of variety programmes in Singapore. “Divas Hit the Road”, a popular travel variety show by Mango TV was also filmed in Singapore, showcasing Chinese celebrities exploring various places of interest in Singapore.

These partnerships complemented STB’s ongoing “Made in Singapore” (MIS) marketing campaign. Under the MIS campaign rollout, 3D Out-of-Home billboards in London’s Piccadilly Circus, Mumbai’s Phoenix Palladium Mall, New York’s Times Square and Shanghai’s Xintiandi were launched for the very first time, as well as in other key cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta and Manila. Additionally, two global positioning campaigns were also launched, one positioning Singapore as the “World’s Best MICE City” and the other reinforcing Singapore’s status as a “Culinary Capital”.

These collective efforts by tourism stakeholders, supported by STB’s marketing initiatives have strengthened Singapore’s appeal as a must-visit destination. In the 2024 annual index by Euromonitor International, Singapore ranked ninth among the Top 10 City Destinations for 2024 and is one of only two Asian countries in the Top 10 list⁵.

Futureproofing the Tourism Sector: Upskilling and Digital Transformation

Capability Building

Tourism creates quality jobs for locals and offers diverse career options for various demographics. As of September 2024, the total tourism workforce has recovered to around 76,000 – about 4% higher than in September 2023⁶. Upskilling tourism workers and strengthening the competitiveness of tourism companies will remain STB’s focus.

To support workforce development, STB inked a three-year partnership with NTUC LearningHub to co-develop and offer courses in key emerging areas of tourism such as sustainability, service experience excellence and technology. In addition, STB introduced the Tourism Leadership Excellence & Advancement Programme (T-LEAP), a leadership training programme focused on partnership, technology and sustainability. This programme aims to equip local industry leaders with skills needed to navigate emerging trends and industry disruptions, demonstrating STB’s commitment to driving leadership development in the tourism sector.

STB enhanced the tourist guide licensing process by developing  a more compact licensing course which was reduced to a minimum of 120 hours, from the previous 220 hours. The revised Tourist Guide Training Programme now focuses on independent research and storytelling. These improvements are designed to foster deeper engagement with tourists, enhance visitor engagement and attract a diverse pool of tourist guides who are equipped to showcase the many facets of the Singapore story.

Advancing Sustainable Tourism

Progress was made in sustainability to maintain a resilient tourism sector. In 2024, STB facilitated key industry initiatives aimed at bolstering sustainable tourism in support of the Singapore Green Plan 2030⁷. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) MICE Criteria was developed in collaboration with the Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (SACEOS), to serve as the global sustainability standards for MICE businesses and provide a common understanding of sustainable practices in the MICE industry worldwide. The standards for MICE Event Organisers and Venues within Singapore’s MICE Sustainability Certification Framework became GSTC-recognised in November 2024, a first in the world, which MICE stakeholders developed with STB’s support. Complementing these efforts, the MICE Venue Sustainability Playbook was launched to serve as a comprehensive guide to enhancing green practices in the MICE industry. The GSTC Attraction Criteria was also developed and is the world’s first global standard specifically designed for attractions.

As a testament to these initiatives, Singapore ranked top in Asia Pacific and seventh globally in the 2024 Global Destination Sustainability Index, rising ten places from the preceding year.

Technology transformation to enhance visitor experience and business priorities

Singapore remains a test bed for new technology and innovation in tourism. In 2024, Google and STB launched a pilot project to introduce more than 30 Augmented Reality (AR) experiences on Google Maps, featuring a variety of attractions, precincts and F&B establishments. This provides fresh ways of engaging with the app’s more than two billion monthly active users.

The Singapore Tourism Accelerator (STA) by Tcube, made significant strides in business transformation. In 2024, STA supported 13 start-ups in developing 15 pilots across various tourism industries, including hotels, attractions, MICE, and integrated resorts. These pilots leveraged cutting-edge technologies to improve communication and experiences, while also utilising data analytics for sustainability management. One success story is a pilot by Far East Hospitality and ByteGenie where their AI-driven automation solution reduced search time for prospective sales leads from up to a week to just half a day - an 80% improvement in productivity.

Technology can also help tourism businesses generate new business opportunities in the long run. For example, through customised dashboards that help with trend visualisations, STB’s Data Analytics Shift (Commercial) Programme (DASHc) has enabled tourism companies such as Mount Faber Leisure Group, Andaz Singapore, Worldwide Hotels and Straco Leisure to refine their business strategies, reduce manual processes and enhance digital marketing efforts. This would help them better target the relevant markets and visitor segments, ensuring their offerings remain appealing.

2025 Outlook

STB expects 2025 international visitor arrivals to reach between 17.0 to 18.5 million, bringing in approximately $29.0 to $30.5 billion in tourism receipts. While acknowledging potential headwinds stemming from geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic challenges, STB remains focused on driving quality tourism growth to defend and extend Singapore’s global position as we continue to develop tourism in the years ahead.

Ms Ow said, “As we look back at 2024, as well as our achievements over the last 60 years, tourism has contributed to the economy, reinforcing our international reputation and providing more lifestyle options for visitors and residents. Together with our industry partners, STB is committed to sustain our tourism growth, by increasing Singapore’s mind share and market share, maintaining a diversified market portfolio and strengthening destination vibrancy. Our Tourism 2040⁸ roadmap will guide our efforts to drive the next phase of quality tourism growth for Singapore. This will ensure Singapore continues to thrive as a world-class destination that meets the needs of the evolving global traveller.”

In 2025, Singapore’s tourism landscape will continue to welcome new developments, including the introduction of new attractions and experiences, and a robust line-up of leisure and MICE events.

Please refer to Annex C for other key MICE and Leisure Events in 2025.

¹STB’s forecast in 2024 was $27.5 to $29.0 billion. TR is likely to exceed the last TR record of $27.7 billion in 2019. The full year 2024 TR figure will be available in 2Q 2025.

²In line with previous practices, STB excludes Sightseeing, Entertainment & Gaming in the country analysis due to commercial sensitivities.

³Announced 25 January 2024 by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority. The visa exemption arrangement came into effect on 9 February 2024. Please refer here: https://www.mfa.gov.sg/Overseas-Mission/Beijing/Consular-Services/Consular-Updates/2024/01/CON_20240125

⁴According to latest figures extracted from global travel data provider Cirium on 24 January 2025

⁵Source: www.euromonitor.com/press/press-releases/december-2024/euromonitor-international-reveals-worlds-top-100-city-destinations-for-2024

⁶Source: Manpower Research & Statistics Department, MOM

⁷http://www.greenplan.gov.sg/

⁸As announced by Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations at the Tourism Industry Conference 2024. Please refer to: www.mti.gov.sg/Newsroom/Speeches/2024/05/Speech-by-Minister-Grace-Fu-at-Tourism-Industry-Conference-2024

-END-

About the Singapore Tourism Board

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is the lead development agency for tourism, one of Singapore’s key economic sectors. Together with industry partners and the community, we shape a dynamic Singapore tourism landscape. We bring the Passion Made Possible brand to life by differentiating Singapore as a vibrant destination that inspires people to share and deepen their passions.