S'pore Hotel Room Rates Hit Record-High

Source : The Straits Times, Mar 25, 2008

HOTELS in Singapore have become more expensive than Hong Kong, with February's average room rates peaking at $256 - a record high.

This is an increase of 43.7 per cent over the rate a year ago, and is higher than Hong Kong's average room rate for January at HK$1,245 (S$221.60).

With the higher rate, Singapore hotels were estimated to report a 43.5 per cent increase in room revenue to S$174 million, said the Singapore Tourism Board on Tuesday.

Singapore hotels have been on a rising streak for the last two years with room rates picking up, a move cheered by hoteliers who long bemoaned that hotels here are under-priced.

But the average hotel occupancy for February fell to 79 per cent, down by 3.8 per cent from a year go and 7 per cent from last month's 85 per cent.

The higher room rates and occupancy were boosted by more foreign visitor arrivals, which rose 7 per cent in February from a year ago.

Singapore welcomed 811,000 visitors in February, compared with 758,000 a year earlier.

'This is a new record for visitor arrivals for the month of February,' said the STB.

The average length of stay increased at a faster pace, with visitor days rising 20 per cent from a year ago to 3.2 million days.

Leading the tourist packs were 125,000 Indonesians, 121,000 Chinese, 52,000 Australians, 51,000 British and 50,000 Malaysians. These markets accounted for 49 per cent of total visitor arrivals for the month.

And the number of Chinese tourists is the highest ever in a single month, pulling close to the Indonesians.

STB attributes the jump to travel promotions from China to Singapore, the Chinese New Year period which encouraged Chinese to travel abroad and more flights out of China.

Markets like Vietnam registered the biggest growth, rising by 43.2 per cent, followed by Australia (30.1 per cent) and South Korea (30 per cent).

This year, STB is banking on events like the Formula One Grand Prix race and attractions like Singapore Flyer open to draw in 10.8 million visitors and $15.5 billion in tourism dollars.