In 2019, after constant focus and efforts of building a pipeline of visitors from India, Singapore received approximately around 859,000 visitors from India between January to July. Also, In 2018 for the fourth time in a row that it crossed the 1 million mark registering about 1.44 million Indian visitors to Singapore with an increase of 13 per cent as compared to the statistics of 2017. In an interview to Economic Times, GB Srithar, regional director (India, Middle East & South Asia) at Singapore Tourism Board spoke about Indian visitor arrivals and the growth of MICE tourism from India.

On being asked on the performance of India in terms of overall numbers for Singapore tourism board for the first half of the year. Srithar said “For the fourth time in a row, Visitors Arrival (VA) from India to Singapore had crossed the 1 million mark registering 1.44 million in 2018 with an increase of 13% as compared to 2017. And for the second year running, India retained its position as Singapore’s 3rd biggest VA source market, after China and Indonesia. Growth of VA from secondary cities has been robust.”

India continues to be the top source market for VA in the cruise segment for Singapore. 160,000 cruise passengers from India sailed out of Singapore’s shores in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 27% from 2017. Talking about the share of business travel which has gone up over the same time last year he said to economic times “From across the world, we received about 2.9 million BTMICE travellers in 2018 last year, which was an increase of 12% year-on-year. The growth of business travellers from India in 2018 exceeded that.”

Singapore’s status as a top MICE city was further reinforced by playing host to notable events such as the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, which was attended by world leaders and global CEOs, and mega Asian technology conference ConnecTechAsia.Due to a wide range of travellers coming across the domain from India and exploring a destination besides their work hours and once they are done with their business meeting and conferences. In order to maximize the quality time spent in a business outdoor destination, they look for leisure options to combine it with different activities. This entire group of people looking out for a similar segment is so huge that it led to a new category popularly known as Bleisure travel.