The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is offering financial support for business travel and promoting the island’s child-friendliness to Malaysia in a bid to reverse sliding arrivals and revenue from its northern neighbour.
While overall tourist receipts declined for the first time since 2009 last year, falling by 6.8 per cent to $22 billion, Malaysian spending in the Republic dived by a quarter to just $637 million. Malaysia has long been Singapore’s third-largest source of tourists, but with the ringgit depreciating by 20 per cent against the Singapore dollar in the past two years, it could slip behind fourth-placed India.