These additions complement existing hotels that used this period to refresh or rebrand their properties, such as Hilton Singapore (reopening as voco Orchard Singapore in 2022) and Mandarin Orchard (reopening as Hilton Singapore Orchard in 2022).
Other hotels introduced unique staycation and guest experiences. For example, The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore launched the world’s only augmented reality (AR) hotel art tour for visitors to interact virtually with art pieces by globally-renowned artists such as Dale Chihuly and Frank Stella.
Grand Hyatt Singapore also partnered with homegrown sports apparel brand Kydra and local organic food producers for its Recharge Wellness Retreat, to cater to the growing demand for sustainability and wellness experiences.
From January to December 2021, Singapore’s hotel industry registered an Average Occupancy Rate (AOR) of 56.2 per cent. This is a slight decrease of 1.1 percentage point compared to the previous year, when AOR was reinforced by strong tourism performance in the first two months of 2020. Average Room Rate increased slightly by 2.7 per cent to $158, while Revenue per Available Room held steady at $89.
MICE and Leisure Events
The resumption of MICE[5] events picked up pace in 2021, following the introduction of the Safe Business Events Framework in 2020. In 2021, Singapore hosted more than 200 MICE events with almost 50,000 local and international attendees.
These included pilot events to testbed new protocols, such as the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, Industrial Transformation Asia Pacific 2021, Milken Institute Asia Summit and the 50th St Gallen Symposium.
STB will continue to build up the pipeline of significant MICE events for 2022 and beyond, including some multi-year events. Notable ones include FIND – Design Fair Asia (2022–2024), Gastech 2023, Global Health Security Conference 2022, 60th International Young Lawyers’ Congress 2022, Seafood Expo 2022, SILMO Singapore (2023–2025), Transport Logistic and Air Cargo 2023, World One Health Congress 2022 and the World Congress of Dermatology 2023.
Leisure and lifestyle events that STB supported in 2021 included the Dale Chihuly:
Glass in Bloom exhibition at Gardens by the Bay and the international premiere of PopUp Disney! A Mickey Celebration. STB also supported the Mobile Legends Bang Bang M3 World Championship in December 2021, and the HSBC Women’s World Championship at Sentosa – the first international professional golf tournament in Asia, and first to have corporate hospitality suites in Singapore since the start of the pandemic.
STB will expand the range and scale of such lifestyle and leisure events in 2022, to meet local demand and ensure that Singapore remains attractive to international visitors. One example will be the upcoming series of ONE Championship events in 2022.
