Record business visitors as F1 excitement builds up
SINGAPORE – It’s all good news on the Singapore tourism front as the destination celebrates new highs in arrivals, record occupancies and average rates and the coming of fresh blockbuster attractions and events such as the world’s first Formula 1 night race.
In the month of July, the city state welcomed the highest ever number of business visitors, thanks to a series of major events.
Events such as the 27th International Epilepsy Congress, Herbalife Asia Pacific Extravaganza 2007, World Glaucoma Congress 2007, 18th Wonca World Conference on Family Medicine (WONCA), 2nd Conference of the Asian Society for Pigment Cell Research, Asia Pacific Congress of Bronchology and the 41st Singapore-Malaysia Congress of Medicine, Singapore Pharmacy Congress 2007, and the Third Asia Autoimmunity Forum (AAF) 2007 attracted close to 25,000 foreign visitors that month.
Together, they contributed at least SG$40 million to Singapore’s total tourism receipts.
Meanwhile, the first starting block to host the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix was put in place last week – works on the Pit Building have commenced.
Measuring some 350m long and located along the waterfront, the Pit Building will house key race infrastructure. Taking up most of the ground floor is space for 36 garages for the 12 teams.
At least 30% of the race track will have to be built to supplement the rest of the street circuit which is made up of Singapore’s existing road network.
With the race of the date set for September 28, 2008, hoteliers are putting together five-night minimum packages with speculation rife that some hotels along the race track may be quoting rates above the S$2,000 a night mark.
As soon as the date for the race was set on July 27, Patrick Fiat, general manager of Royal Plaza on Scotts, offered a mininum four-night package of $900 per night on his hotel’s website and got one booking instantly. “I was just testing the market and this booking came in almost immediately, paid and guaranteed through the web,” he told PASSPORT, the STB’s industry newsletter.
Also agreed on is a government levy of 30% for hotels on the race circuit and 20% for hotels away from the main action.
Yeoh Siew Hoon
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