Singapore hotels cheer as Hong Kong protests fuel Chinese tourism boom

Visitors spent US$4.2 billion in hospitality receipts as of November this year, five times the amount in 2018
Hong Kong’s unrest has pushed some visitors to the city state, while attractions such as Jewel Changi Airport and the F1 race have also helped to boost arrivals

Singapore

Bloomberg

Published: 5:15pm, 11 Dec 2019

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Hotel deals in Singapore are set for a record as the city state sees a surge in tourist arrivals buoyed by people wanting to avoid the anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Hospitality transaction volumes were an unprecedented S$5.7 billion (US$4.2 billion) as of November 30, according to preliminary figures from Colliers International Group, about five times that of 2018, and the most in at least a decade.

A record 5 million visitors came to the island in the third quarter, led by tourists from China, data from the Singapore Tourism Board show. That brought arrivals this year so far to 15.8 million.

Govinda Singh, executive director of valuation and consultancy services at Colliers, said that Singapore “no doubt” benefited from the protests that have rocked Hong Kong for the past six months.

The opening of a vast new entertainment complex Jewel Changi Airport – which boasts the world’s tallest indoor waterfall – as well as the reopening of the iconic Raffles Hotel and additional business generated by the F1 Singapore Grand Prix also helped, he said.

A few major Singapore real estate investment trust mergers boosted transactions too, according to Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore at Colliers.

The biggest deal this year was the purchase of Mandarin Orchard for S$1.2 billion following the merger of OUE Commercial REIT and OUE Hospitality Trust.

The group also bought the Crowne Plaza hotel at Changi Airport for S$486 million, in what was 2019’s third-biggest deal.

Barring an economic crisis, the near- to midterm outlook for the hospitality market is favourable, said Christine Li, head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia at Cushman & Wakefield Plc.

With some large biannual events and exhibitions making a return and new ones surfacing, 2020 is expected to be another bumper year, Li said.

A series of new attractions should also help solidify Singapore’s position as a Southeast Asia tourism hub.

Resorts World Sentosa plans to add a Minion Park and Super Nintendo World to Universal Studios Singapore, while the Mandai wildlife project should boost eco-tourism when it opens in 2023.

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