Residents ditch SG50 celebrations in favor of foreign travel as long weekend rolls in

Outbound bookings surge on National Day weekend.

Many flats across Singapore will be conspicuously empty as the four-day National Day weekend rolls in. A report released today by travel data intelligence firm ForwardKeys showed that a large number of residents have chosen to embark on overseas trips rather than stay and celebrate the nation’s 50th anniversary.

Departures for the SG50 long weekend have surged to almost 9,000 bookings, peaking on 6 and 7 August.
ForwardKeys said that departure bookings started growing significantly as early as March 2015.

Short-haul destinations took the lion’s share of flights.Over 13% of travellers are headed to China, while over 11% are headed to Thailand and almost will visit Indonesia.

Other popular destinations include Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Australia.

“The overall picture emerging from our data is that Singapore’s 50th anniversary celebrations are causing a holiday travel boom into and out of the country. Total visitor nights in Singapore projected from the international air reservations that have been made, are 3% up on the previous year, and then up 5.5% for the rest summer season, starting from the Anniversary weekend. Departure bookings are also showing an increase,” said Olivier Jager, Co-founder and CEO, ForwardKeys.