The latest figures available for Singapore’s MICE industry paint a mixed picture. On the one hand the country has experienced a 3.4% increase in visitor spend for Q3 2017, however this is offset by a 5% decline in international visitor arrivals recorded for the same period.
Drilling down further on those numbers, the country saw 1.75 million people arrive for business events in Q3 last year, with S$3.15 billion spent on accommodation and shopping activities.
Despite the varied results, the broader life signs of Singapore’s business events sector look healthy as last year saw a very busy period of growth for MICE infrastructure development, with many new hotels opening their doors equipped with spaces dedicated to hosting business events of all sizes.
Some of these hotels included HuoneSingapore, which offers an all-in-one business events venue catering for groups of six to 150 delegates across 11 meeting spaces. The luxurious AndazSingapore was also welcomed to the market in September featuring two meeting rooms, a 583m glass ballroom, and a 203m Garden Studio ballroom.
The last 12 months was also fruitful for Singapore in respect to securing major events, with a host of large-scale conferences to be hosted over the next five years.
Some of these big wins included Campus Party running this month, the world’s largest technology-based festival which is tipped to attract more than 1,000 attendees and includes talks from industry heavyweights such as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. This year marks the first time an Asian nation has hosted the event.
