Tourist arrivals expected to increase due to integrated resorts

SINGAPORE: Tourism in Singapore is expected to experience a boom this year thanks to the opening of the integrated resorts.

Industry players say there are now over 950 travel agents in Singapore - an increase of over 100 from the previous year.

Travel agents told MediaCorp that there are now more queries on visiting Universal Studios Singapore.

Some operators are also increasing investments to expand their businesses and gain a bigger share of the tourism dollar.

The two integrated resorts are expected to bring in more tourists to Singapore in the next one to two years.

However, what is important is to entice tourists to stay one more night, which can help the tourism industry to reap more profits.

Tourists currently stay for about three nights.

"Right now, we are only getting about 10 million tourist arrivals," said Robert Khoo, chief executive officer at NATAS.

"I'm sure we can cater to a lot more. And I believe the Tourism Board has a much higher target for 2015. So I think there is still a lot of room for growth."


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