Singapore - Bangkok-bound tourists heading to Singapore instead

Tourists who are put off by the Bangkok floods are choosing to come to Singapore for their year-end vacation instead.

Travel agencies and hotels say they have seen a spike in the number of visitors - especially from China, Vietnam, India and Indonesia - since Thailand was hit by floods in mid-October.

This bodes well for the tourism industry here.

Ms Alicia Seah, CTC Travel's senior vice-president for marketing and public relations, said her agency has seen a rise of about 15 per cent - an estimated 200 more visitors - compared with the fourth quarter of last year. She put it down to the Bangkok factor.

"There are those who have no other option but to avoid Thailand, and Singapore is enjoying the spillover," she said, adding that her company has noticed spikes especially in the Chinese and Vietnamese markets.

Ms Lin Deng Li, chairman for Golden Travel Services, said tourist arrivals have jumped by as much as 20 per cent for her agency in the last few weeks, translating to about 100 more people.

Hotels are seeing a similar trend.

Mr Loh Lik Peng, director of Hotel 1929, Wanderlust and New Majestic Hotel, said he has also seen a spillover effect from the Bangkok floods in the last two or three weeks, but he declined to give numbers.

Tourists mainly from China, Vietnam

National Association of Travel Agents Singapore chief executive Robert Khoo said Singapore is a ready substitute for Bangkok-bound tourists because it is also a big city and tourists can enjoy the same kind of good-quality shopping here.

Given the current trend, he expects that Singapore could benefit from up to thousands of these accidental tourists.

And the good news for retailers here is most of these tourists are ready to spend.

Said Ms Lin: "Once they are here, they will definitely want to go shopping, particularly at Orchard Road as the Christmas decorations are coming up and they do attract lots of visitors."

Among those eager to do their Christmas shopping in Singapore is Mr Fred Lee, 60, who arrived yesterday.

The president of the Dalian Overseas Chinese Chamber of Commerce and his team of eight were planning to go to Bangkok as part of their South-east Asia business trip but had to cancel after the floods hit. They lost about 30,000 yuan (US$4,700) in flights and booking fees.

However, they are making the best of it by doing their shopping and sightseeing here. Yesterday, they collectively spent about S$100,000 (US$78,000) on bags, sunglasses and belts from designer brands such as Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton.

"We couldn't go to Bangkok this time, but we can still learn a lot from Singapore as it is very strong in the environmental industry and we can study things like how it runs its port and city planning," Mr Lee said.

Singapore hosted a record 11.6 million tourists last year, who spent an unprecedented S$18.8 billion.

This year's figure looks set to exceed that. The Singapore Tourism Board forecasts tourist arrivals to hit 12 million to 13 million. Tourism receipts for January to June were estimated at S$11 billion, a 32 per cent year-on-year growth.

In anticipation of a bumper holiday shopping season, some shopping malls are gearing up for the holiday season by putting up lavish decorations and promotions.

Ion Orchard has assembled a 20m-tall walk-in Christmas tree where visitors can climb to a lookout point 10m above ground.

Takashimaya Department Store plans to extend its opening hours closer to the festive period next month. It has collaborated with Swarovski Elements to create crystal-encrusted decorative props.

However, the influx of tourists is not confined to those with spending power.

Hostels also said budget travellers were extending their stay in Singapore as they could not go to Bangkok, a popular destination with this group of travellers.

"Each week we have a few people extending their stay by two or three days instead of going to Bangkok," said Ms Susanti, a receptionist at The InnCrowd Backpackers Hostel in Dunlop Street.

Last week, Bank of Thailand's deputy governor Suchada Kirakul said that the country's tourism revenue will drop by about 20 billion baht (US$650 million) because of the calamity, and that the number of tourists for this year will be 700,000 to 800,000 fewer than expected.

Several countries have warned their citizens against travelling to Bangkok over the past month.

Singapore is not the only country benefiting from this. The Economic Times from India reported two weeks ago that India was seeing Bangkok-bound tourists from Western countries.

Shuli Sudderuddin

The Straits Times

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