Singapore took in around $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2018, thanks to an increase in gaming, tourism and entertainment spending. The figure represents a 6% increase over the same period last year. Total tourism receipts during the period, however, actually decreased by 0.5% over the first quarter of last year to $4.9 billion.
The data was provided by the Singapore Tourism Board last Tuesday and indicated that an increase in spending on entertainment, sightseeing and gaming made up for a loss seen in spending on accommodations, shopping, eating and drinking. The numbers show that revenues from entertainment, sightseeing and gaming provided 22% of the total revenue. This put it in a tie with shopping for the second-most important tourism-spending component for the first quarter of the year.
The tourism board doesn’t provide a detailed analysis of the services that are listed in each spending category. However, the combined category of “entertainment, sightseeing and gaming” is reported to include entrance fees to nightspots and attractions, day tour purchases and spending on entertainment at Singapore’s casino resorts.
There are two casino resorts in Singapore—Marina Bay Sands, which is operated by Las Vegas Sands, and Resorts World Sentosa, a Genting Singapore property.
Around 4.6 million tourists descended on the country during the first quarter of the year, an increase of 7.3% over the same period in 2017. Approximately 933,000 of these visited from China, representing an increase of 10% year-on-year. 747,000 came from Indonesia for a 4% increase and 295,000 were from India—22% more than what was seen in the period in 2017.
For the entire first half of 2018, 9.2 million tourists visited the country, according to government data. This was 7.6% more than the amount seen last year during the same period. Of these, 24%—2.2 million—came from Greater China and 6%, or 584,555, came from Malaysia. Taiwan participation was also up during the first half of the year, with 211,213 citizens of the country visiting Singapore. This was an increase of 8% over the same period last year.
Singapore set a record last year in tourist volume when it welcomed 17.4 million tourists. This was an increase of 6.2% over the previous year and included 3.23 million trips by Chinese visitors.
