[SINGAPORE] Hotels rates, takings and occupancy for the first quarter of 2025 fell on a yearly basis, even as the number of international arrivals were largely similar, figures from the Singapore Tourism board (STB) showed on Wednesday (May 7).
But hotel data and arrival numbers picked up on a quarterly basis.
Across the three months of Q1 2025, March recorded the steepest year-on-year (yoy) declines across all measures.
In Q1 of this year, Singapore hotels recorded an average room rate (ARR) of S$272.63, down 3.3 per cent from Q1 2024’s S$281.94. Within the first quarter of this year, the ARR grew 1.4 per cent yoy in January, but slid 3.4 per cent in February, and a steeper 7.3 per cent in March.
Other hotel industry indicators – overall hotel room revenue, revenue per available room (RevPAR) and average occupancy rate – also dipped yoy.
This came as international visitor arrivals (IVA) was almost flat year or year. Tourist arrivals reached 4.31 million in Q1 2025, up a marginal 0.1 per cent from 4.3 million visitors in Q1 2024.
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This was led by a 15 per cent jump in IVA in January to 1.63 million tourists, balanced out by a 2.9 per cent fall in February to 1.38 million arrivals, and an 11.5 per cent drop in March to 1.3 million arrivals.
March 2025’s IVA performance reflects seasonal patterns, said an STB spokesperson, noting the “exceptional event line-up” in the year-ago month. These included Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour concerts, SHINee’s World VI concert and Sneaker Con SEA.
Similar to the corresponding period in 2024, China was the top source of tourists in Q1 2025, accounting for 831,470 visitors.
“This was mainly driven by January 2025’s strong performance due to the winter break in public schools and Chinese New Year, and on the back of the mutual visa exemption arrangement,” said the STB spokesperson.
Other top source countries in the first quarter of 2025 were Indonesia (640,257), Malaysia (312,218), Australia (308,124) and India (261,456).
STB noted that across source geographies, Japan posted the biggest IVA growth. Visitor numbers from the country surged 17 per cent yoy to 161,342, from 137,852.
The spokesperson attributed the improvement to the agency’s “regional office’s multi-faceted approach to promoting Singapore through targeted marketing campaigns, strategic partnerships, celebrity endorsements and digital engagement”.
In particular, the spokesperson highlighted that a two-year partnership with Klook launched in July 2024, which aimed to drive visitor arrivals and spending from Japan through curated leisure experiences, “successfully drove substantial bookings of Singapore experiences”.
The lower base in January to March 2024, when Japan’s outbound market was slower to recover, also amplified the growth, the spokesperson said.
Overall room revenue in Q1 2025 shrank yoy to S$1.29 billion, down 3.6 per cent from S$1.33 billion. RevPAR, meanwhile, fell 4.1 per cent to S$220.73, from S$230.21 in Q1 2024.
The hotels’ average occupancy rate stood at 80.96 per cent in Q1 2025, down from 81.65 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
Across all hotel segments – luxury, upscale, mid-tier and economy – ARR fell in March 2025, on a yoy basis. The changes were more mixed across the segments in the other two months of the quarter.
Quarterly shifts
Sequentially, hotel and arrivals data picked up for the quarter as a whole.
At S$272.63, ARR in Q1 2025 was higher than the S$270.42 in Q4 2024. Room revenue, at S$1.29 billion, was up slightly from the preceding quarter’s S$1.28 billion. RevPAR rose quarter on quarter to S$220.73, from S$215.76.
Occupancy was up at 80.96 per cent, from Q4 2024’s 79.79 per cent.
IVA was also on an upward trend, from Q4 2024’s 3.94 million visitors. Indonesia was the top source of visitors in Q4 2024, instead of China, which was the second-largest source. Australia was in third place, and Malaysia was in fourth, with India rounding out the top five.
Looking ahead, the STB spokesperson pointed to “an exciting line-up of events” in the next few months that it expects to drive IVA.
These include entertainment events such as the upcoming Lady Gaga concerts; major Mice (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) events such as Semicon Southeast Asia 2025; and highly anticipated sporting events such as the return of the Singapore Festival of Football.
For the full year, STB expects to receive 17 million to 18.5 million international visitors, contributing S$29 billion to S$30.5 billion in tourism spending.
