951,000 visitors - the most in a month, beating the previous high of last July by four per cent.

951,000 visitors - the most in a month, beating the previous high of last July by four per cent.

They stayed longer too - 3.6 million days in all, 11 per cent more than last July’s record.

Travellers from the United States, Australia and Vietnam set records of their own for arrivals from the three countries.

Plus $168.3 million in hotel room revenue - 27.5 per cent over last July.

Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang is confident that the industry will continue to grow.

‘The tourism sector has been riding a new wave in the last few years,’ he said during the ground-breaking of the Pit Building for next year’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.

With 5,883,000 tourists visiting Singapore shores in seven months, the industry is well on its way to its ‘10.2 million visitors’ target for the year which, if fulfilled, will be another record.

July has traditionally been a strong month for tourism, said National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (Natas) chief executive Robert Khoo.

Australian tourists head here during their winter season while Americans and Europeans arrive on summer holiday.

Another lure: the Great Singapore Sale.

Visitors from Down Under made a strong showing in July, with their 76,000 visitors making them Singapore’s third largest group of tourists, after Indonesians (192,000) and Chinese nationals (109,000).

Natas’ chairman of the inbound committee Allen Tsang noted that several business events added to visitor numbers.

In July, the likes of Herbalife Asia Pacific Extravaganza 2007, the World Glaucoma Congress 2007 and the 18th Wonca World Conference on Family Medicine were held in Singapore.

Such business events drew close to 25,000 visitors and contributed at least $40 million in tourism receipts.

Whether tourist or business traveller, it did not matter for hotels here.

A spokesman for the Grand Copthorne Waterfront said: ‘The back to back conventions in July contributed to the increase of revenue.

‘We had to turn more than 3,100 room nights away. We also had to stop taking reservations as early as one month before the peak period.’

Hotel cashiers were working overtime, going by the latest Singapore Tourism Board numbers. Nine in 10 hotel rooms were booked up and average room rates hit $185 per night - a record for the month of July.

Just two years ago, room rates were averaging $136.

It was also a bumper month for Changi Airport. In July, 3.16 million passengers passed through Changi’s aerobridges, the highest ever in a single month this year and 3.5 per cent more compared to the same month last year.

While hoteliers and retailers enjoyed the boom, travel agents have raised the alarm about Singapore literally running out of rooms. Natas’ Mr Tsang said the pace at which new hotels are being opened is not keeping up with the growth in visitor arrivals.

And more tourists are expected with Changi Airport’s Terminal 3 opening its doors in January, especially given new attractions next year like the Formula 1 and the Singapore Flyer ferris wheel in the Marina Bay area.

The F1 alone is anticipated to bring in 80,000 tourists.

Weighing in on the issue yesterday, Minister Lim said: ‘We recognise that our demand is greater than supply. We have not been building sufficient hotel rooms during the difficult years from 1998 to 2003 partly because hotel rates were low and hotel developers and investors did not see the yield and the returns to hotel investments.’

In fact, Singapore will need to double the number of rooms here given that it had ‘practically doubled visitor arrivals’, he added.

There are 36,000 rooms here now and Mr Khoo estimates that 5,000 more rooms will be available by 2010, with the integrated resorts contributing half of the total.

The industry is also exploring novel accommodation ideas such as floating hotels, homestays and converting existing buildings to hotels to ease the tight room supply.

Mr Lim said that the Government is releasing many sites to put up new hotels and the ball is now in the developers’ court.

Since August last year, contracts for nine hotel sites, which should yield about 3,100 rooms, have been awarded. Another 10 sites are available, with eight on the reserve list.

He said: ‘They know hotel rates have gone up and will continue to go up at a measured pace.

‘We hope they will tender sensibly for the land price and be in the position to build the supply that we need.’

Source : Straits Times - 01 sept 2007