A mere 18,200 visitors have availed of Singapore's unilateral reopenings to travellers from a handful of countries during the pandemic, according to official statistics.
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Numbers given by the Civil Aviation Authority to local news broadcaster CNA show that since August, when Singapore began allowing tourists to visit again after closing its border in March, over 12,000 arrivals from China and around 2500 from Australia made their way to the city-state.
Visitors numbers from Brunei, New Zealand and Taiwan were in the hundreds, while just over 1000 Vietnamese touched down at Singapore's usually thronged airport.
While its border remains closed to most visitors, Singapore has also set up so-called reciprocal green lanes for business and official travel with seven countries, though five of the deals have since been suspended, including with Germany, due to resurgences in coronavirus case numbers.
The reopening to tourists from Vietnam was put on ice in February after a slight jump in numbers there.
Singapore's economy shrank by a record 5.4 per cent last year, partly due to the collapse in international travel wrought by border closures.
Most Asia-Pacific countries have kept their frontiers closed to almost all arrivals, except for returning nationals or longer-term visa holders, since March last year.
Business travel and tourism accounts for around 5 per cent of gross domestic product in Singapore, which counted almost 20 million arrivals in 2019.
Australian Associated Press
