Government Grants to Support Marquee Events and Considerations in Decision-making

5 Mr Don Wee asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what considerations do the Singapore Tourism Board give when deciding which artiste or event to disburse grants to.

6 Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) when did the Government start supporting marquee performance or sports events through grants; (b) for events taking place in 2024, what are the total grants agreed upon and how many tourists are these events expected to attract; and (c) what are the estimated benefits to the Singapore economy from all these events.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr Alvin Tan) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 5 and 6 in today's Order Paper together, please?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please proceed.

Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has been supporting leisure events through grants since 1998, to complement other marketing initiatives including campaigns and partnerships. For leisure events that STB has supported, international visitors make up 25% to 30% of the total attendees on average.

Aside from leisure events, STB also supports the development and marketing of new tourism products, rejuvenation of existing tourism offerings, upskilling of our tourism workers and also helping our local tourism companies become more productive and innovative.

STB conducts thorough assessments before providing any grant. These include the qualitative and quantitative benefits of any proposed event, such as its ability to drive foreign visitorship and tourism receipts, incorporate unique and innovative programming and also to profile Singapore as a vibrant and appealing destination. These events are expected to create value by generating more business for our companies here, adding to Singapore's vibrancy and also amplifying Singapore's global brand and international stature.

STB tracks overall international visitor arrivals, tourism receipts and the average length of stay. Members can refer to STB's press release on 1 February 2024 for our tourism sector's performance in 2023.

Mr Speaker: Mr Don Wee.

Mr Don Wee (Chua Chu Kang): Thank you, Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Considering that other countries in the region are also strengthening their tourism sectors, may I ask, how does our Government maintain our competitiveness and strengthen our tourism competitiveness or proposition?

Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, I thank Mr Don Wee for his supplementary question. As I mentioned in last Friday's Ministry of Trade and Industry's Committee of Supply, I just want to remind Members that our tourism sector was really hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. And so, we pumped in $500 million in 2022, the SingapoReDiscover vouchers; we also put in the Job Support Scheme, which the tourism sector benefited from significantly; and also, many different times, myself and my STB colleagues have gone to speak to event organisers in the tourism sector, to keep our offerings open, so people know that Singapore can deliver reliably, even in times of crisis.

Sir, we did that so that we can capture the winds of recovery, which are coming, as I mentioned on Friday. Let me give Members a few different examples. Last year, STB supported the inaugural Olympic Esports Week; we supported Gamescom Asia for two years running; Sneaker Con Southeast Asia, this year 2024; Anime Festival Asia 2024; SG Comic Con 2024; HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series; and the HSBC Women's World Championship for women's golf, which I think Mr Speaker had attended on Sunday as well.

As Mr Don Wee had mentioned: the other governments, other places, other jurisdictions are not standing still. If you look at Australia's state of Victoria, they have a regional tourism events fund; Abu Dhabi has a mega events fund; and Hong Kong too has committed, over three years, HK$100 million to attract and to organise large-scale, international world-class events on its shores.

Mr Speaker, there are two famous lines by a very talented young artist which have been sung and will be echoed by over 300,000 people across six nights at our National Stadium. These two lines are, "I don't miss a beat," and "I'm lightning on my feet."

Sir, STB will continue to be bold, forward-looking, strategic in assessing every single opportunity for Singapore to welcome all of these world-class events, these world-class tourism offerings, to make Singapore an attractive leisure, business destination for people to come, live, work, visit and play. We will certainly be lightning on our feet.

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Sir, having previously spoken about the importance of the economic viability of the Sports Hub and being reasonably convinced that there are indeed spillover effects for such first-mover advantages of STB's, it is nevertheless the case that sometimes there may be negative effects on foreign relations when there are perceptions by other countries that Singapore is kind of hoarding the pie.

And, of course, "haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate". But I am wondering to the extent that STB will work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or other agencies, to manage this potential fallout when it comes to international relations, and I had previously spoken about the possibility of foreign aid agencies building up soft power, I am wondering if there is any other efforts by STB or any of the MTI agencies in pushing forward this aspect?

Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, I thank Assoc Prof James Lim for his questions. The short answer is that we do what is in Singapore's best interests, as any other jurisdiction's government would do for their own jurisdiction's best interests. But if you think about this, if you take a step back, when visitors come from outside of the region and they come to Singapore, there are also attendant benefits because then they may go and visit other tourist sites around the region.

Singapore is a hub. It is a hub, a hive of activity. Connectivity helps and it also supports and benefits our neighbours around the region. So, we do what is best for Singapore, but we also understand that Singapore is a hub, a connectivity hub, and being a vibrant hub also benefits our region and our neighbours as well.