Singapore's hospitality sector focuses on regional markets

Singapore: When Abdul Rahman Al Janahi was planning to take one of his family members for medical treatment abroad, many recommended one destination: Singapore.

The East Asian country has been attracting increasing numbers of visitors from the Middle East, mainly the Gulf region, who are seeking either business opportunities, medical treatment or simply leisure and shopping.

"Based on its reputation for medical treatment, everybody from friends to medical doctors advised us to go to Singapore," Janahi, a UAE national, told Gulf News. "Frankly, the law and order there is very respected. Their medical services are also of a good quality," he said.

Singapore, which uses its political stability and low crime rates among the main factors to attract visitors, has succeeded in adding its name on the list of top financial and commercial hubs of the world.

Now, the cosmopolitan 49-year-old city state is working on promoting itself as a tourist destination in the potential markets mainly the Middle East, Russia and Vietnam, Singaporean officials say.

According to official figures, Singapore receives 400,000 people seeking medical treatment every year. At the same time, it is pouring investments in tourism products, such as multi-billion-dollar shopping districts, including the famous shopping area of Orchard Road, and is opening new shopping malls and hotels.

Apart from priding itself of having the world's largest observation wheel - the Singapore $280-million (Dh734 million) "Singapore flyer", work continues round the clock on the adjacent Sentosa Island to build many tourist projects, including a casino.

The cost of establishing the resort, World at Sentosa, scheduled to open in 2010, is expected to reach more than S$6 billion. The island was awarded the "most popular large attraction" at the Asian attractions awards.

At the same time, mega projects are coupled with the country's plans to host some international gatherings, such as the recent Formula One event and the Youth Olympics next year.

"We see the prospects for tourism are still very good because of the range of projects being carried out," Mudh Rostam Bin Umar, Director of Communications at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), told a group of visiting journalists from the Middle East.

STB is an economic agency for tourism with a mission to make tourism a key driver of economic growth by marketing the country as a "must-visit" destination.

So far, other Asian destination such as Thailand and Malaysia have been more popular among people of Middle East as family and honeymoon destinations.

Umar believes the region offers a "complementary" experience for the visitor saying there are packages which include Singapore and both Malaysia and Indonesia.

Singapore realizes the difficulty of being one destination for all types of tourists. In terms of priority, therefore, officials in Singapore say leisure and business tourism come at the top followed by heath care and education.

The government also focuses on the country's education sector, which highlights the potential of attracting students.

A total of 44,080 Middle East-based travellers have visited Singapore in the first five months of 2009, an eight per cent increase over 2008, official figures show.

While the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran are the strongest growth markets, visitors from Kuwait have also seen an increase thanks to new flights to Singapore. The top five markets contributing visitors to Singapore are Indonesia, India, Australia, Malaysia and China. They accounted for more than half of the arrivals in Singapore in the first five months of this year.

British and American travellers were ranked eight and 10 respectively in terms of numbers. Also, "they are important because they are business visitors or bring business activities", Umar noted.

Global fears from H1N1 have been cited as a reason behind a decline of visitor arrivals from both China and Japan in the first months of 2009.