i'mpact Singapore Tourism Board Annual Report 2010/2011

Chairman’s message
Prevailing opinion regards Asia as the place to be now for
growth and excitement. Despite the challenges that confront
the global economy, countries in Asia continue to advance
and to offer new opportunities for development. Tourism has
been, and will remain, an integral and important contributor to
this vibrancy.
During the past year, tourism in Asia benefited from the twin
phenomena of the sharp rise in popularity of budget air travel
and the significant increase in intra-Asia travel attributable
to travellers hailing from China and India. These factors will
underpin growth in regional tourism for more years to come.
In Singapore, the two Integrated Resorts are major catalysts
for tourism development. Retail, food and beverage,
entertainment, hospitality and healthcare sectors have all
reported increased tourism revenue, while the country’s probusiness
environment has helped Singapore to rank among
the top ten in the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism
Competitiveness Index.
Confidence in Singapore is high as we ended 2010 with recordbreaking
tourism receipts and international arrivals of S$18.9
billion and 11.6 million respectively. For the first time, monthly
visitors to the country surpassed the one million mark in July
and December. With new opportunities come new challenges,
and together with our industry partners, we need to remain
focused on the task of building a competitive and sustainable
tourism sector that will complement other efforts in making
Singapore a more interesting and conducive place to live, work
and play in.
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