As the longest-ever 9-day Spring Festival holiday countdown begins, Chinese tourists are presented with an unprecedented array of outbound travel choices, facing an increasing number of visa-free destinations like Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, and Brazil. Data from Qunar reveals that during the 2026 winter vacation and Spring Festival period, hotel bookings by Chinese tourists were spread across more than 3,000 cities worldwide. While neighboring countries such as Thailand, South Korea, and Singapore still rank among the top five popular destinations, bookings for newly visa-free destinations like Turkey surged 2.3 times year-on-year. A fierce battle to attract Chinese tourists is underway.
To retain its position as a top choice for Chinese travelers, Singapore's Changi Airport announced a collaboration with several Chinese airlines to significantly increase flight capacity to and from China from late January to early March, adding over 600 flights cumulatively. In this global race for "last-minute" travel, how does Singapore, a city-state with a land area less than 1/20th of Beijing and only about 1/9th of Shanghai, continue to persuade Chinese tourists to choose it?
At the end of 2025, a reporter visited this Southeast Asian nation. Beyond the tropical humidity, one immediate impression was its small size. It is so compact that within a single day, using only public transport, one can easily travel from the country's westernmost to easternmost point, and from its northernmost to southernmost tip. Yet, this tiny territory boasts a tourism sector contributing approximately 4% to its GDP and supporting around 220,000 jobs. Interestingly, according to Singapore's latest report, even before tourist numbers fully recovered in 2025, total tourism revenue had already surpassed 2019 levels. In other words, fewer people were visiting Singapore, but they were spending significantly more.
This suggests that Singapore may have found an optimal solution to navigate the intense competition for tourists. The reporter interviewed local tourism professionals in Singapore, aiming to understand how Singapore's tourism system operates to maximize value per visitor and what insights it might offer to tourism practitioners in China.
"We have a small country with limited resources, so every decision and investment must be meticulously calculated to ensure every dollar delivers maximum value," explained Martin Mohdari, Head of Public Policy, Government, and Corporate Affairs for Southeast Asia and South Asia at global online travel giant Expedia Group, articulating the core of Singapore's tourism strategy. Having previously worked at the Singapore Tourism Board, he is deeply familiar with its development philosophy.
This "strategic calculation" is directly reflected in the data. According to the latest report released by Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry on November 21, 2025, Singapore's total tourism revenue in 2025 was already 7.6% higher than in 2019. Intriguingly, while total visitor arrivals had not fully recovered, total revenue grew against the trend, with the secret lying in a substantial leap in "per capita spending"—up 24.4% compared to 2019.
"During the ASEAN Tourism Ministers meeting every January, we advocate for 'quality tourism,' a more nuanced, multi-dimensional path for sustainable growth that focuses not just on visitor numbers, but more importantly on the value each visitor brings," Martin elaborated. "Given Singapore's limited land area, we must carefully balance the push for tourism growth against potential pressures on public infrastructure and other aspects." This logic stands in stark contrast to the "volume-driven" approach of many larger tourism destinations.
Singapore's tourism administration falls under the Ministry of Trade and Industry—an economic ministry. "This means our focus on tourism growth is fundamentally centered on the economic benefits it can bring to our people. We closely monitor data on tourism revenue, job creation, and similar metrics," Martin stated.
This strategy has proven successful on the economic balance sheet. The growth in revenue is supported by an evolution in visitor spending habits: shifting from primarily "shopping for goods" to a greater willingness to spend on "quality experiences." Among these, spending on dining saw the most dramatic increase, up 16.0%; expenditure on attractions and entertainment grew steadily by 5.0%; and hotel accommodation spending showed robust growth of 4.8%. In contrast, traditional shopping expenditure declined by 2.5%, but the increase in experiential spending more than compensated for the gap.
Due to its small size, Singapore intensively develops and clusters tourism experiences to extend visitor stay duration and increase spending density. Whether it's Sentosa Island, which integrates theme parks, an aquarium, and resorts, or the Marina Bay Sands cluster, combining landmark architecture, gardens, and a casino, these are spatial products of this "actuarial mindset." The goal is to generate the richest possible array of spending from visitors within a confined geographical area.
How does Singapore ensure a steady stream of high-value visitors? The country places significant emphasis on the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions) industry. "The MICE industry provides a more stable, long-term revenue base for tourism, while also creating opportunities to expand 'bleisure' (business + leisure) travel," Martin shared from his observations. "Moreover, an increasing number of visitors to Singapore for business events incorporate leisure activities, and some even return specifically for leisure travel after their event concludes." He revealed that in Singapore, the contributions of the MICE industry and general leisure tourism are roughly equal, with the MICE share sometimes being higher in certain years.
"The advantage of the MICE industry is that events require bidding in advance; winning a bid can secure hosting rights for the next 3 to 5 years, facilitating long-term planning. In contrast, for the leisure tourism market, a marketing campaign launched today might only expect bookings from consumers within the next 3 to 6 months—a relatively short cycle," Martin noted.
In March 2024, the Singapore Tourism Board launched the global MICE brand campaign "Meet in Singapore," aiming to position Singapore as the "World's Best MICE City." This strategy leverages "three strengths, one foundation": connectivity, innovation, sustainability, and a base of trust and safety. This approach precisely aligns with the needs of corporations, particularly Chinese companies expanding overseas.
Singapore serves as a hub for Chinese enterprises entering Southeast Asia and the global market. In recent years, major events organized by Chinese companies, such as the Ctrip Global Partners Summit, the China Literature Global Chinese IP Festival, the China Entrepreneurs Forum, and the Wu Xiaobo Channel Global Expansion Summit, have frequently chosen Singapore as their venue. In Martin's view, these are not merely conferences; they represent strategic moves by Chinese companies to leverage Singapore's hub status for brand internationalization and regional resource connection.
"Tourism also serves a soft power function, but equally important in Singapore's development philosophy is how it fosters business growth and corporate expansion," Martin analyzed. "Whether building a fintech ecosystem, a deep tech system, or advancing health tech, biotech, and pharmaceutical industries, business events are crucial—they allow participants to assess Singapore's investment appeal, identify potential partners, and understand how to better integrate into the local environment."
To accommodate and satisfy the composite demands of these high-net-worth visitors for "business + deep leisure," Singapore continuously enriches the layers of its tourism experiences. A senior local tour guide in Singapore indicated that Chinese tourists' interests are expanding beyond iconic sights like the Merlion and Universal Studios, "spilling over" into deeper experiences such as hiking the Southern Ridges, exploring the ecology of Pulau Ubin, and visiting the Katong Peranakan cultural district. Simultaneously, social media has become the primary channel for discovering these "non-traditional" experiences.
This signifies that Singapore now offers not just sightseeing, but explorable, shareable deep experiential content, making the integrated model of "business + deep leisure" truly feasible.
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