Since reopening its borders to international tourists earlier this year, tourism in Singapore has been on the rise, with Indians accounting for the majority of visitors by place of origin.
Without the requirement for testing or quarantine, the island city-state now admits all fully vaccinated tourists from all around the world.
While observing the tourist districts, one may notice an outpouring of travellers into the country and numerous businesses bracing for an influx of international visitors. Popular tourist services such as open-top tour buses and trishaws (three-wheeled bicycles with a seat on the side) have appeared unexpectedly at Suntec City and Rochor Road, respectively. A spectacle not seen since the COVID started to wreak havoc across the world.
Tourist arrivals more than doubled in April, from 121,200 in March to 294,200 in April. The Singapore Tourism Board released figures to support this claim. However, this is still a long cry from the 1.638 million average monthly visitors Singapore had in the year prior to COVID. Over 300,000 of them came from China, Singapore’s pre-pandemic top tourist destination, which is now mostly closed to visitors.
Indians have been the largest group of nationals travelling to Singapore since the beginning of the year, making up for the missing Chinese. From January to April, around 95,500 Indians entered Singapore. Indonesians come in second with 89,700 passengers, followed by Malaysians with 45,600 passengers. Singapore does not include Malaysians who enter the nation through the land border, which has now been fully reopened, because the bulk of individuals who utilise this route do so on a daily basis to study or work.
This month, passenger traffic at Changi Airport is likely to reach over 40% of pre-COVID levels, up from less than 20% in March. With one of the two terminals shuttered since COVID prepared to reopen, this figure is likely to surpass 50% in the following months. Changi Airport has four terminals, although only two are operational at present.
