Siew-Kheng Kang, regional director (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) of Singapore Tourism Board, speaks to The Daily Star in an interview yesterday.Photo: STAR

First half of 2008 witnessed over 32 percent increase in the number of Bangladeshi tourists to Singapore, said a top official of Singapore Tourism Board (STB) yesterday.
“We get a range of tourists -- including holiday, medical and business tourists -- from Bangladesh and the number is growing every year,” said Siew-Kheng Kang, regional director (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) of STB.
Kang said from January to June some 56,000 Bangladeshi tourists visited Singapore for different purposes, registering a sharp rise of 32 percent as opposed to the number of Bangladeshi tourists in that country during the same period a year earlier.
About 60 percent of Bangladesh's tourists go to Singapore for pleasure, 35 percent for healthcare and business and 5 percent for education.
“As tourism sector contribution constitutes seven percent of our national economy, we have a plan to increase the number of tourists in coming years,” Kang said, adding that in 2007 Singapore received around 11 million tourists from all over the world and earned $13.8 billion.
Terming Bangladesh 'a potential market', Kang said Bangladesh's economy has grown faster than the other South Asian countries; this enabled the people from middle and higher income group to travel around.
“The STB is working very hard to encourage South Asian tourists to visit Singapore by developing better infrastructure and establishing regional offices in countries with growing economy, such as Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan,” she said.
“In addition, we have been creating family-friendly tourism atmosphere by arranging different types of festivals -- such as fashion, food and shopping festivals -- round the year at different tourist spots in Singapore,” Kang said, adding that Formula One, a street night race, would be arranged for the tourists in September.
She said number of Bangladeshi tourists in Singapore has increased at least by 85 percent since 2004. In 2004, 42,000 Bangladeshi tourists visited Singapore.
Kang also said Bangladesh should arrange global campaigns to highlight and showcase its attractive tourist spots and take part in overseas tourism fairs to develop tourism sector.