Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands, due to have its first phase opening on 27 April, are between them adding around 4,300 hotel rooms to the Singapore market. But they claim they can increase Singapore’s daily capacity for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) by up to 80,000.
Do those two sets of figures stack up when it comes to building Singapore’s MICE sector? It certainly seems unlikely that the injection of a modest amount of hotel capacity in tandem with a major increase in MICE capacity is going to do much to bring down Singapore’s hotel prices. In 2008, Singapore’s average daily room rate hit SD245 (USD175).
In January this year the average daily room rate (ADR) in Singapore stood at SD187 (USD137). Macau’s ADR for January 2010 was 1,044 patacas (USD130). The Las Vegas ADR for that month was USD99.75.
The cost of hotel accommodation is likely to have been a factor in the relatively shallow growth curve of Singapore’s MICE business between 2004 and 2008. Given the massive potential capacity at the new IRs for MICE attendees compared to their hotel room inventory, it’s likely that on site rooms during conference times will attract a premium, while many conference attendees unable or unwilling to pay a premium will have to stay off site. That kind of pattern has already been seen in Singapore’s existing MICE market.
Many delegates to Las Vegas conferences also find accommodation off site, but that’s common because most of the major properties on the Strip are clustered together. In Singapore, any conference attendees at MBS staying off site will have a short journey from downtown Singapore (typically 11 minutes and a SD7.50 fare at 8.30am according to the online fare calculator taxisingapore.com). But conference attendees at RWS will have considerably longer journeys. A taxi from Orchard Road in the centre of downtown Singapore to Sentosa Island isn’t expensive—about SD14 (USD10)—but at 8.30am on a weekday will typically take about 25 minutes.
For the full story on the role of Singapore’s casinos in the Singapore MICE market, read April’s edition of Inside Asian Gaming.
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