THE report on tourist arrivals cited Singapore's Formula One motor racing event as having raised September's tourist numbers by 18.4 per cent over those of September last year ('F1 helped fuel rise in Sept visitor arrivals'; Oct 30).
The Singapore Tourism Board attributed the increase in part to the Grand Prix and 'the draw of many leisure and entertainment events' held at that time.
However, in the months of January, March, May and July - when there were no special events taking place - the increase in tourist numbers over last year's in the corresponding months were either similar or better.
The comparative figures given by the Singapore Tourism Board for tourist arrivals for January, March, May and July this year and last year (in brackets) were 908,486 (772,138), 928,719 (791,236), 946,472 (726,391) and 1.094 million (882,107) respectively. The numbers represented an increase of 17.7 per cent for January this year, 17.4 per cent (March), 30.3 per cent (May) and 24 per cent (July).
In September, when Singapore hosted the F1, visitor arrivals rose to 946,979, compared with 799,496 during the same month last year - an increase of 18.4 per cent. But, compared with the other ordinary months, there is no evidence of an extraordinary boost from F1.
The figures for August, when Singapore hosted the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), tell the same story. Some 996,500 tourists arrived here in August, compared with 844,649 in the same month last year, an 18 per cent increase.
The August and September figures do not suggest that the two marquee events brought about an extraordinary surge in tourist arrivals.
Ng Kok Lim
STB just said there is a rise. even an increase in 0.000001% is considered an increase. So what's the farking matter?
Same goes to other countries.
International event will draw tourists to their country.
if the airlines don't want to put extra flights, you can plan all you want and there will be no increase because there is a capacity limit...
YOG is a joke la......who wants to travel all the way here to watch kids perform unless you're the family of the athletes. There's no coverage of the event in other countries except for Singapore. And we've spent $400m on that to boost our image?
The live converage is poor.
poor marketing.
who would want to waste time on a bunch of kids?
Bad move by PAP to stage YOG.
A lot of crap from PAP since Lee Hsien Loong came to power.
I nvr watch yog at all.
Only my kids told me the touch that pass by his school and everybody is cheering them.
And saw the open bus with loud speakers (yog), waking me up from my sleep in the afteroon!
Waste too much time and resources for such unproductive events.
Too much money, the PAP. Keep on organising these type of worthless events.