Source : Business Times - 4 Feb 2009
SINGAPORE’S hotels enjoyed record room rates and room revenue in 2008, even though visitor numbers and tourism receipts fell short of targets.
According to data yesterday from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the island welcomed 10.1 million visitors last year, 1.6 per cent fewer than in 2007 and below the 10.8 million target for 2008.
‘The decline in arrivals reflects the impact of the global economic slowdown on consumer sentiment and discretionary spending,’ STB said.
Indonesia, China, Australia, India and Malaysia were the top five tourist markets, accounting for about 50 per cent of total visitor arrivals in 2008.
Although the number of visitors shrank, tourism spending and visitor days grew from 2007. Tourism receipts rose 4.8 per cent to a record $14.8 billion, falling just shy of the goal of $15.5 billion.
STB estimates that visitor days increased 8.7 per cent, to a record 41.3 million days.
The hotel industry did well last year. Preliminary figures show room revenue reached an all-time high of $2.1 billion, up 12.1 per cent from 2007.
Average room rates hit a record $246, jumping 21.9 per cent from $202 in 2007. This contributed to a 13.5 per cent increase in revenue per available room, from $176 in 2007 to $199 in 2008 - another record.
But the average occupancy rate fell - for the first time since 2003 - to 81 per cent last year. This was six percentage points lower than in 2007. All hotel tiers, from economy to luxury accommodations, experienced lower occupancy.
As the global economy falters, the outlook for tourism has dimmed. DBS Vickers, for instance, said in a December 2008 report that arrivals could fall 4-6 per cent in 2009.
And with new hotels coming up, operators could try new ways to fill rooms, ‘which could include tying up with various credit card brands to offer discounts, changing client mix to optimise rooms usage or an outright slashing of room rates to remain competitive’, the research house said.
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