DAVOS, Switzerland: A long-term growth potential for Singapore’s tourism industry remains, due to pent up demand among consumers for travel, said Transport Minister S Iswaran on Monday (May 23).
Mr Iswaran said passenger traffic at Changi Airport has already picked up to at least 50 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes.
Speaking during a panel session on revitalising travel and tourism at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, he added that this is much faster than the authorities had projected.
That means expectations will have to be recalibrated due to the stronger growth momentum.
“What this also means, though, is that the manpower issues, the resource constraints, they’re also going to bite. Because it’s one thing to say, ‘I’m going to increase capacity by 50 per cent’, but you can’t just flick the switch. You got to bring the people back, you’ve got to get them trained, you’ve got to get your processes running,” said Mr Iswaran.
As a result, Singapore needs the ensure that it ramps up and keeps up with the capacity needs.
“The operational needs in airports around the world have really shot up and the systems have not been able to keep up. That’s quite evident looking at the crunches in various airports,” he said.
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