Tourism Industry in Singapore as the Backbone of Singapores Economy, Term Paper

Essays on Tourism Industry in Singapore as the Backbone of Singapore's Economy, Factors Enabling Singapore Tourism Board's Good Performance Term Paper The paper â€Å"Tourism Industry in Singapore as the Backbone of Singapore’s Economy, Factors Enabling Singapore Tourism Board’s Good Performance† is a  meaty example of term paper on tourism. Asia Pacific region is one of the regions in the world that is well endowed with numerous tourists’ sites. Most of the countries in this region border the Pacific Ocean a factor that enables these countries to have access to other nations on other continents. The region is strategically placed in that one can access it through water, air or even land transport. Therefore, the tourism industry has thrived well in these regions and the destinations are very competitive globally. Some of the countries that are in this part of the world are; Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, etc (Yoursingapore, 2011:1). These nations have really invested in this industry and indeed, they have received a lot of income for many years. This paper focuses on Singapor e as one of the countries that have a serious investment in the tourism sector. The paper will show statistical information on how the industry is thriving. It will also discuss the reasons why this Singapore is succeeding in the industry and the strategies that have been adopted to increase efficiency in this industry.The tourism industry in Singapore is a major economic sector in the economy of this country. The industry has been stimulated by various factors i. e cultural diversity, geographic location, climatic condition, technological advancement, long rich history, and economic potential. Singapore tourism board (STB) is an agent of destination marketing (Solidiance, 2008:1). The government created this board in 1964 to manage the affairs of the tourism sector. It was initially called the Singapore Tourist promotion board (Yoursingapore, 2011:1). Its main functions were coordinating the efforts of hotels, travel agents and airlines to improve the tourism industry in Singapore. Actually, since its endorsement, much has been realized and the country has moved many steps in the tourism industry.Statistical informationThe number of visitors in Singapore has been ever increasing over the years. This implies that the income from this industry has been growing too. The only interruption that caused the revenue to come down was during the 2008/2009 financial year when there was a global financial crisis. Nevertheless, the situation improved in the preceding years. In the year 2010, income from the tourism industry was estimated to be $18.8 billion, this was a growth of about 49% when compared to the previous 2009 (Yoursingapore, 2011:35). The reports reveal that there is hope for this continued growth due to the prevailing factors that have been put in place by the tourism board to boost this industry.It is amazing that the number of tourists who visits Singapore as tourists are double the population of the residents of Singapore itself. The population is estima ted to be about 5.5 million people. However, reports from the statistical data reveal that in the year 2010, about 11.6 million tourists toured this country (Kumar, 2009: 1). Over 53% of these tourists came from the five biggest markets that are Indonesia about 2.3 million, China about 1.2 million, Malaysia about 1.1 million, Australia 0.8 million and India about 0.75 million tourists. The rest came from other major world markets such as Japan, the Philippines, UK, Thailand, and the US. In 2010, the gazetted hotel room income rated at a total of $1.9 billion registering an increase of 21.8% than in 2009. (Yoursingapore, 2011:35). The average occupancy rate of the rooms was 86%, this was a positive development of about 9.8% more than in 2009. The average room charges were $212 recording an increase of 12.2%, on the other hand, the average income per available room reached $182 registering an increase of about 26.6% than in 2009. From all these statistics, we can note that in 2009, th e overall performance was quite bad. This was attributed to the global economic crisis that was encountered in 2008 (Kumar, 2009: 1).