British national Tony Cross first stepped into Singapore in 1992, when the main draw of the city country were its great market centers, pulsing the Zook nightclub and the famous Singapore Zoo.
Today, shopping has taken a back seat, as the prices of goods climbed with commercial rent in a city where the space is scarce. And, Singapore’s former club club industry is facing difficult times, injured by high costs and switching to alcohol consumption habits.
The competition is also a competition of other cities of Southeast Asia, which are far cheaper to visit.
Instead of competing at the price, Singapore relies on world -class attractions like Marina Bay Sands,, Garden gardens and spread Mandai wildlife reserve Draw both budgets and luxury passengers.
Others come to business conferences and live events, from the annual Formula One Night race to megastar concerts like Taylor Swift and Coldplay. This year, Singapore hosted the concerts of Lady Gage 18, 21 and May 24-the only position in the Asian-Pacific-Pacific-Singapore Airlines, whose award program, Krisflyer, a concert partner.
“Singapore built a great position of affordable Southeast Asia in the 80s and 90s. But many other cities in the region also increased their game,” said Cross, a financial advisor who visited the island nation for some 20 times in the last three decades.
Economy of experience
In 2024, Singapore attracted 16.5 million foreign visitors, an increase of 21% compared to 2023, according to the Singapore Tourist Board. Numbers do not include hundreds of thousands of people who enter Singapore every day through two bridges connecting Singapore with Malaysia.
This is a huge increase compared to 1992, when the city state attracted less than 6 million visitors, according to the national archive of the country. However, it is still shy of 19.1 million who arrived in 2019.
Taylor Swift performs at the National Stadium of Singapore on March 2, 2024.
Ashok Kumar/Tas24 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
The Singapore Tourist Board predicts that visitors’ arrivals will grow to between 17 million and 18.5 million this year, enhanced by a series of lifestyles and mice (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions), as well as new attractions in the range from the range Wild Asia rainforestThe park that opened last week, at Disney Adventure Cruise a ship that was supposed to sail in December.
Said the Singapore Tourist Board CNBC trips It will continue to support projects that provide interactive experiences in accordance with global shifts towards experiential trips.
Galastein Tan, a former head of the main events at a company operating a Singapore Sports Environment, a place for Taylor Swift concerts last year, said Singapore needed a colorful tourist sector to attract and retain human capital that makes it a global city. This includes developing a portfolio of fixed assets such as Marina Bay sand and “current” assets such as concerts and sports and cultural events.
Having a wide range of tourist attractions will also increase domestic consumption and create jobs at a local level, he said.
The visitor is investigating the Rainforest Wild Asia Cave Chamber – Park, which is part of the Mandai Animal Divine Animal Reserve – which opened in March 2025.
Suhaiimi Abdulla | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Singaporeic sectors of retail and food and drinks contracted last year, even when the total economy spread by 4.4%, because increased consumption of Singapore residents compensate for the increase in tourism.
“The challenge remains for Singapore to remain forward because regional countries and cities compensate and amplify their own unique tourist portfolio,” Tan said. “Tourists now have more options.”
Group hotels and cheap food
Expedia, an internet travel giant, said the search for flights to Singapore from China, Indonesia and India-three the largest sources of visitors to the city state-1% in the period from February to July 2025, compared to the previous six months. The accommodation search also fell 2% during the same period, the company said.
Singapore is still a popular destination for Mice’s events, and ranked second in Paris at the International Congress and Congress Federation 2023. Thailand and Malaysia, however, fall into the sector, due to lower costs and improvement of infrastructure.
Singapore is the perfect place to maintain events … but the costs are very high.
Albert Lee
Event organizer
Albert Lee, a Malaysian organizer of the event, said that a quality conventional space in Kuala Lumpur can be rented by about half of what costs in Singapore, while dinner for 40 in a beautiful restaurant with fun and transportation can be organized by one -third of the price. Bangkok costs are comparable to Kuala Lumpur, he added.
“Singapore is the perfect place to maintain an event – it’s nice, safe, affordable and STB is of great help. But the costs are very high,” he said.
Lee noted that even though Kuala Lumpur had no iconic hotels like Singapore’s sandy Marina Bay Sands, the five -star city hotels cost much less. For example, the Shangri-La Singapore Room costs $ 500 Singapore dollars ($ 375) a night compared to SG 170 USD at night at his sister hotel in Kuala Lumpur, showed a review of Hotels.com.
Finding value
The tourist board in Singapore is trying to change the perception that Singapore is a rally, emphasizing how much a visitor can do in one day thanks to a public transport system in Singapore, which Cross has done.
“We have collaborated with various influencers to show that Singapore offers not only value for money, but also that passengers can maximize their plan and time at our destination,” a spokesman said.
Japanese businessman Yoshihiko Tano, who often visits Singapore to get caught up in friends, said, although hotels are expensive, eating cheap, thanks to many Falcon centers where meals and drinks can be purchased for less than $ 10.
Singaporean Lau Pa Hawker Center, in the central business district of town.
Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images
“Hokkien Mee is my favorite local food,” he said, adding that he loved to walk nature in many parks in Singapore.
The city state can also count on the support of repeated visitors such as Nazija Tanzeem, who said Singapore remains an aspiring destination for Indians thanks to “Dekhoji Dekho Singapore“Hindi song in a movie made in 1960.
Tanzeem lived in Singapore for a few years before moving to Bangalore, where she is cheaper for her education for her children, but her husband continues to work in the city state, she said.
“There are many people who would like to visit Singapore at least once,” she said.
