Singapore tourism continues decline, pitch decision expected May

• STB release findings
• Visitor arrivals keep dropping
• Hotel revenue shows massive loss

Singapore - The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has released its findings for the month of March and the news is bad across all quarters, with totals visitor arrivals and hotel revenue both suffering a sharp decline.

Visitor arrivals to Singapore reached 790,000 in March 2009, registering a decline of 13.2% compared to March 2008. Visitor days were estimated at 3 million days, a decrease of 11% in comparison with March 2008. It was however, an increase from the January numbers which reached just 771,000.

In March, Indonesia (128,000), China (91,000), Malaysia (60,000), Australia (55,000), and the UK (53,000) were Singapore's top five visitor-generating markets and these markets accounted for 49% of total visitor arrivals for the month.

Among the top 15 markets, Malaysia (+5.6%), Germany (+4.7%) and Vietnam (+1.9%) registered growth. This can be attributed to the occurrence of school holidays in Malaysia and ongoing promotions in both Germany and Vietnam. Visitor arrivals in 12 out of the top 15 markets decreased compared to the same month last year.

The biggest decline was seen in hotel room revenue, with Singapore gazetted hotels estimated to have generated S$125 million in room revenue, representing a massive decrease of 33.3% versus March 2008. The average room rate in March this year was estimated at S$196, representing a decrease of 18.5% over March 2008.

The highly anticipated global creative, media and digital pitch for STB will be announced in the second week of May, it is believed.

For the creative pitch BBH, Ogilvy & Mather and Publicis are in the running while for media incumbent Starcom MediaVest is battling it out with Mediaedge:cia and OMD. The digital pitch will be decided between OgilvyOne, Publicis Modem and XM Asia.