Singapore sees big spike in Middle East visitors

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POPULAR CHOICE: Singapore has seen 18 percent increase in visitors from the Middle East. (Getty Images)

More and more Middle East travellers are choosing Singapore as their destination, latest figures reveal.

Despite the recent downturn in the global tourism sector, Singapore welcomed a total of 50,262 visitors from the region in the first half of 2008, an 18 percent over last year’s figure.

The UAE, Qatar, and Iran were recorded as the top visitor markets in the Middle East for the first six months of the year.

This compares to less than a three percent increase in visitors globally as Singapore welcomed 5.1 million visitors from January to June.

“Emerging markets such as the Middle East continue to play an important role in Singapore’s tourism growth strategy and have helped us in offsetting the effects of the global economic downturn,” said Jason Ong, area director, Middle East and Africa, Singapore Tourism Board.

Although total tourism receipts fell 0.2 percent for the first half of 2008 over 2007 to an estimated $US 4.7 billion, the Singapore Tourism Board believes the Middle East market will help drive numbers upwards in the future.

“Although we have seen a slight recession in travel trends worldwide, we are confident that over the mid to long term, we will attract increasing traffic from the Middle East and the GCC in particular,” added Ong.

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