Singapore will encourage tourists to spend more by offering marquee events and attractions such as the Formula One night race as a faltering global recovery threatens to curtail growth in visitor arrivals.
The country’s five biggest tourism markets are located in the Asia-Pacific region where there’s “steady growth,” said S. Iswaran, Singapore’s second trade minister who oversees the tourism industry. This has offset concerns that Europe’s protracted sovereign-debt crisis may limit travel, he said.
Singapore forecast arrivals to rise to 17 million and tourism spending to S$30 billion ($24.5 billion) by 2015. The opening of two casino resorts that include a downtown convention center and a Universal Studios theme park spurred a 13 percent increase in visitors last year after a 20 percent climb in 2010. The country expects the number of tourists to rise as much as 9.8 percent to 14.5 million in 2012.
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