Chinese travel to Singapore is recovering at a faster rate than to other ASEAN nations, buoyed by greater seat capacity and increased demand, according to investment bank Maybank.
In a weekend note titled “Tackling the Chinese outbound tourism dragon” and incorporating research from marketing solutions company Dragon Trail international and database management firm ForwardKeys, Maybank analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang observes that travel from China to Singapore is recovering faster than travel from China to other key markets like Thailand or Malaysia.
This is in part due to greater airline seating capacity, which is tipped to reach 65% of pre-COVID levels for Singapore by mid-year compared with just 45% for trips from China to Thailand or Malaysia.
However, Yin also notes that Singapore is fast becoming a preferred destination of high-net worth Chinese citizens.
“Pre-COVID, no ASEAN destination featured in the top 10 preferred outbound destinations by high-net worth Chinese list,” he wrote. “Post-COVID, Singapore leapfrogged to seventh position surpassing Dubai, Italy and the United Kingdom.
“This jives with recent literature that many high-net worth Chinese have been visiting Singapore to set up family offices or even migrate there. While … Thailand may attract more Chinese tourists going forward, it does seem that Singapore will attract more high-net worth Chinese tourists instead going forward.”
Yin, who lists Genting Singapore as one of the companies under his coverage that will benefit most from the return of Chinese tourists, also highlights the changing nature of those tourists since the reopening of China’s international borders on 8 January.
“Chinese tourists really are travelling longer than pre-COVID times,” he said.
“One, lengths of stay of more than 14 nights are the fastest to recover relative to 2019 in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Two, the number of Chinese tourists travelling as independent travellers (singles and couples) are recovering faster relative to 2019 than those travelling as part of tour groups.
“Chinese free and independent travellers are favoured around the world over Chinese tour groups due to their perceived higher spending budgets. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Chinese that travel as part of tour groups tend to have lower spending budgets.
“Curiously, travel by single Chinese to Singapore has recovered swiftly to 63% of 2019 levels. We understand that Singapore is increasingly popular with single Chinese women who favour it for its hygiene, safety and plethora of shopping options.”
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