Bangkok beats Singapore as best travel destination

Singapore expects only 12.11m international overnight visitors this year.

Second place is all Singapore got despite its hard work on luring tourists in with a projection of 12.11 million international overnight visitors in 2016, according to a survey by Mastercard. This is a mere half of what's predicted for top-ranking Bangkok as 21.47 million overnight visitors are forecasted to visit the Thai city.

Kuala Lumpur does not fall far from Singapore with an expected 12.02 million number of visitors, followed by Tokyo, 11.7 million, and Seoul, 10.2 million. Hong Kong, surprisingly, is at the bottom half of the list as only 8.37 million visitors are projected to visit the city this year.

If the survey is to go by, Singapore will have to hugely thank visitors from Jakarta as they are the biggest spenders with a whopping US$1.8m spend. Visitors from Hong Kong, Manila, Tokyo, and Shanghai come next in the list.

Rachel Loh, deputy director, Strategic Planning and Incentive Policy, Singapore Tourism Board comments that despite the survey outcome, Singapore is still an attractive destination. “From January to July 2016, our international visitor arrivals grew by 11.5% over the same period in 2015 and barring unforeseen circumstances, we are optimistic of achieving our 2016 forecast growth of 0– 3%,” she says.

She adds that Singapore offers a unique value proposition that is not easily replicated elsewhere. “While there is increasing competition, the positive growth in Asia Pacific outbound travel and inbound arrivals to Asia will benefit countries in this region and should continue to do so for the rest of 2016.”