Singapore Records Low International Arrivals in 2021, Shows Signs of Recovery

Singapore sets a new low for international arrivals with 330,000 international arrivals in 2021.

Singapore witnessed low international arrivals in 2021 but showed indications of improvement after implementing a quarantine credit system for vaccinated visitors and issuing cash vouchers, according to Singapore’s tourism office. According to figures from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore had 330,000 overseas arrivals in 2021, the lowest level since the 1970s. This was just around 2% of the pre-pandemic visiting count.

Revenue was an estimated S$1.9 billion ($1.41 billion) in 2021, also one of the lowest on record. In comparison, Singapore had 19.1 million visitors and generated S$27.1 billion in 2019.

For much of 2020 and last year, Singapore tightly controlled arrivals to the city-state, requiring those who entered to quarantine for up to two weeks. It introduced quarantine waivers for vaccinated visitors from certain countries from September last year.

China was the top source of visitors, with 88,000 arrivals between January and December 2021, STB said, compared to 3.6 million in 2019. Strict Chinese COVID-19 policies that discourage overseas travel have hurt tourism globally.

($1 = 1.3432 Singapore dollars)

(With inputs from Reuters)