Tourism in Singapore is a major industry and contributor to the Singaporean economy. In 2019, 19,114,002 tourists visited the country, which was the highest recorded number of arrivals since independence in 1965. In 2025, 16,912,283 international tourists visited Singapore, which was almost thrice the country's total population.
The country is marketed as a "City In Nature" destination by the Singapore Tourism Board under its 'Made in Singapore' campaign in 2023, with sustainable tourism as part of the campaign efforts. It also claims to be environmentally friendly, and maintains natural and heritage conservation programs. Along with this, it also has one of the world's lowest crime rates. As English is the dominant one of its four official languages, it is generally easier for tourists to understand when speaking to the local population of the country, for example, when shopping. Transport in Singapore exhaustively covers most, if not all public venues in Singapore, which increases convenience for tourists. This includes the well-known Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system. Singapore is the 5th most visited city in the world, and 2nd in Asia-Pacific.
The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 ranks Singapore 13th out of 136 countries overall, which was the third best in Asia only behind Japan (ranked 4th) and Hong Kong (ranked 11th). The report ranks Singapore's business environment, international openness, also travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions as the best in the world (ranked 1st). However, the island nation scored rather low in natural and cultural resources sub-index (ranked 40th).
History
In January 1964, the Singapore Tourism Board (then known as Singapore Tourist Promotion Board), was set up to market Singapore, then a state of Malaysia, as a destination for tourists, to develop and to regulate the tourism industry. The Government of Singapore had aimed to create more jobs, income and to facilitate trade within Singapore, through the development of the tourism industry. Throughout the 1960s to 70s, the tourism board ran multiple advertising campaigns aimed at drawing visitors from different countries and published monthly newsletters to promote multiple attractions in Singapore. The Merlion was also created as the Singapore Tourism Board's logo in 1964 and was used in promotional materials. The Merlion eventually became a well-known Singaporean icon and in 1972, a Merlion statue was erected in the Merlion Park. In 1977, there was a record of 1.5 million visitors to the country and tourist receipts were estimated to be S$628 million as compared to 522,000 visitors and S$269 million in tourist expenditure in 1970.
Throughout the 1980s to 1990s, the tourism board aimed to market the culture of Singapore to visitors through the renewal of infrastructure in historical areas such as Chinatown and development of new venues for hosting concerts and conventions. In 2005, the government of Singapore announced the development of 2 integrated resorts in Marina South and Sentosa. Plans to develop Gardens by the Bay were also announced in that same year. The resorts were part of plans to boost the tourism industry which had been facing intense competition from other destinations around the region, particularly from nearby Bangkok and Hong Kong, which has since also considered legalisation of casinos in the wake of initiatives in Singapore. Marina Bay Sands was officially opened on 23 June 2010, while Gardens by the Bay opened on June 29, 2012 and Resorts World Sentosa was officially opened on December 7, 2012.
Tourism statistics
Visitor arrivals to Singapore has been increasing since the country's independence in 1965. As compared to a total of 99,000 visitors recorded in 1965, Singapore attracted a record-high of approximately 19.1 million visitors in 2019 with receipts at S$27.7 billion, according to preliminary figures by the Singapore Tourism Board. The total number of visitors increased by 3.3% from 2018, with increased in arrivals in visitors from China, Indonesia and Australia, while visitors from India and Malaysia dropped 2% and 3% respectively. Tourism receipts increased 2.8% from 2018, with most visitors spending in the sightseeing, entertainment and gaming (S$1,593 million), shopping (S$1,457 million), accommodation (S$1,439 million) and food & beverage (S$649 million) categories.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, visitor statistics in Singapore fell 85.7% and tourism receipts fell 82.6% (S$4.8 million) from 2019. A total of 2,700,000 visitors were recorded that year, which was the first time visitor statistics fell since the decrease in arrivals in 2014. Visitors coming into Singapore for short-term visits were also barred from entering and transiting from March 23, 2020, to October 19, 2021.
In 2021, visitors arrivals further dipped to 330,059 visitors, which was an 88% decrease as compared to 2020. In December 2021, amid the spread of the highly transmissible COVID-19 Omicron variant, many countries still had travel restrictions, with some governments banning travel completely to curb transmission. Travel into Singapore for short-term visits were only resumed in September 2021 with the introduction of vaccinated travel lanes. In 2024, the country recorded a total of 16,526,344 visitors, which was an increase of 21% as compared to 2023.
In 2025, Singapore's tourism receipts reached a record S$32.8 billion, surpassing the previous record of S$29.8 billion recorded in 2024.
General trends
YearTourism Arrivals Percentage change from previous period196599,000 1970579,000488.1%19751,324,000128.6%19802,562,00092%19853,031,00018.3%19905,323,00075.6%19957,137,00034.1%20007,691,3997.8%20058,943,02916.3%201011,638,66330.1%201515,231,469 30.9%20202,742,443 −82%202516,912,283 517%
Recent years YearTourism Arrivals Percentage change from previous year201515,231,469 0.9%201616,402,593 7.7%201717,422,826 6.2%201818,506,619 6.2%201919,114,002 3.3%20202,742,443 −85.7%2021330,059 −88%20226,305,744 1,810.5%202313,610,404115.7%202416,526,31221.5%2025 16,912,283 2.3%
Top markets 2000–2010 Source: Singapore Tourism Analytics Network
Country or territory 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 1,313,316 1,364,380 1,393,020 1,341,747 1,765,324 1,813,569 1,922,217 1,962,055 1,765,429 1,745,330 2,305,149 434,336 497,398 670,099 568,510 880,259 857,814 1,037,201 1,113,956 1,078,742 936,747 1,171,337Excludes Malaysian citizens arriving by land. 564,750 578,719 548,659 439,437 537,336 577,987 634,303 645,774 647,480 764,309 1,036,918 510,347 550,681 538,408 392,906 561,163 620,255 691,632 768,490 833,156 830,299 880,486 346,360 339,828 375,697 309,487 471,244 583,590 658,902 748,728 778,303 725,624 828,903 929,895 755,766 723,431 434,087 598,840 588,535 594,406 594,514 571,040 489,987 528,817 181,032 190,630 195,564 176,585 245,918 319,971 386,119 418,775 418,938 432,072 544,344 285,975 276,157 265,970 226,260 271,691 313,831 291,474 302,110 278,115 294,420 387,552 246,750 260,958 263,866 235,826 341,989 379,040 356,367 353,416 333,905 317,905 430,022 385,585 343,805 327,648 250,678 333,156 371,440 399,786 408,885 396,631 370,704 416,990 354,353 359,083 371,050 261,403 361,083 364,206 454,722 464,292 423,018 271,987 360,673 444,976 460,018 458,528 387,982 457,262 467,154 488,167 495,693 492,933 469,756 461,714 31,837 34,633 40,652 44,420 105,803 150,626 165,105 203,210 239,299 265,414 322,853 290,904 222,087 209,321 144,942 182,443 213,959 219,463 208,156 175,924 156,761 191,173 169,408 166,981 157,510 121,376 142,371 154,779 161,125 164,900 175,280 183,681 209,231
Top markets 2011–2020 Source: Singapore Tourism Analytics Network, Singapore Tourism Board
Country or territory 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2,592,222 2,837,537 3,088,859 3,025,178 2,731,690 2,893,614 2,954,384 3,021,429 3,109,000 457,027 1,577,522 2,034,177 2,269,870 1,722,380 2,106,164 2,863,582 3,226,929 3,416,475 3,627,000 357,292 956,039 1,050,373 1,125,179 1,074,878 1,043,568 1,027,309 1,081,987 1,107,215 1,143,000 206,238 868,991 894,993 933,553 943,636 1,013,986 1,097,186 1,272,069 1,442,242 1,418,000 175,522 1,140,935 1,231,686 1,280,942 1,233,035 1,171,077 1,151,480 1,168,356 1,253,992 1,221,000 153,650 442,611 446,497 461,459 451,931 473,810 489,205 518,903 588,863 607,000 133,336 656,417 757,116 832,845 824,741 789,179 783,721 792,813 829,664 884,000 125,879 440,576 477,213 491,946 484,912 499,509 516,276 565,250 643,162 729,000 123,182 677,723 656,804 687,794 676,481 673,374 691,555 736,456 778,135 829,000 97,881 219,952 252,433 251,560 263,513 286,732 328,762 342,336 356,797 381,000 95,563 414,879 445,184 471,768 536,975 577,082 566,503 631,359 629,451 646,000 89,522 332,231 366,234 380,495 424,408 418,266 469,409 531,359 591,600 592,000 74,424 472,708 477,654 497,409 506,509 516,409 546,384 531,307 545,601 528,000 63,622 238,488 282,203 350,308 337,431 378,026 394,174 395,549 422,935 429,000 61,887 464,375 472,167 539,810 631,029 609,888 537,964 465,769 473,113 489,000 58,976
Top markets 2021–present Source: Singapore Tourism Analytics Network Country or territory 20212022202320242025 88,250130,8701,128,4403,082,2183,100,144 33,4601,104,1601,872,0302,489,3422,439,829 24,220590,960891,8901,185,1271,275,37810,050565,680884,2701,174,3721,267,428 54,380686,470887,2601,197,1071,207,162 11,490381,990568,380779,078726,06510,960318,450516,040692,466716,9095,920132,110359,050573,236627,5128,550226,740384,060579,958587,3567,130217,530488,370594,898587,0103,41065,050289,980403,367422,6884,380283,430393,210364,741386,4885,410130,590249,770349,181356,380 3,440312,710406,410393,184344,286 5,430129,050267,910305,842337,647 4,21086,090142,140179,365196,65710,02085,290100,550134,916169,64259557,080115,910144,733165,08017,900102,99098,730121,760156,959 1,69055,020102,970126,971153,78594042,97066,10083,630102,5341,23033,12063,71086,84399,8661,96051,18076,60089,29197,5051,32036,29062,05083,22395,81277730,46049,64064,68577,9993889,80046,46054,89169,1671,47035,52044,26056,88068,7321,25031,64047,58049,49556,12535514,36428,92036,76238,15215913,02019,91024,45535,98354513,50021,33026,02733,36073016,41023,59027,99231,1491967,17018,62026,39630,93526311,08622,74326,13428,2053559,78015,58023,21426,96242512,69020,27022,99825,50870411,94014,04016,01123,82519510,56014,69017,22422,590383,6507,4707,6857,924352,4104,0104,7886,240541,3704,9106,8625,857
Challenges to the tourism industry Tourism impact of COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) In early 2020, COVID-19 pandemic has affected the numbers of foreign visitors across the country. In February 2020, Indonesia raised its travel alert for Singapore to level yellow, urging Indonesian citizens to take extra precautions when they visit the city-state. Indonesia is among the top source of foreign visitors to Singapore. It is predicted that the number of visitors could fall between 25 and 30 per cent from the 2019 figure.
On September 16th 2020, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing announced that all adult Singaporeans will get $100 tourism vouchers, accessible digitally via Singpass, to be used from December 2020 to June 2021. The $320 million SingapoRediscovers Vouchers scheme is part of the government's effort to prop up the tourism sector, which has been decimated by travel restrictions amidst COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2022 same day as the U.K., Ireland, Finland, Malaysia and other countries, COVID-19 tourism impact in Singapore was officially ended by early April 2022 as the country moves towards the endemic phase.
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