Some say Asia’s tourist spots are getting overcrowded — is this happening in SG too?

SINGAPORE: According to a Nov 1 (Saturday) CNN report, over-tourism is becoming an issue in different parts of Asia, creating issues for locals and ruining the very spots that tourists come to visit.

Beginning in 2024, local residents in several places in Europe made the news when they fought back against the large numbers of visitors to their areas. In Barcelona, for example, protestors took to the streets last summer, telling visitors to go home.

While tourism is a large part of the economy of many Asian countries, the CNN piece suggests that areas such as Bali, Phuket, and Kyoto may be reaching their limits. However, even Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and Boracay Island in the Philippines have experienced overcrowding due to hordes of visitors.

Overtourism can create a host of problems, such as straining natural resources and environmental destruction, not to mention the impact on local culture and the toll it takes on residents.

What about Singapore?

Earlier this year, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said that visitor arrivals increased by about 21% in 2024. The STB added that it expected that Singapore would return to pre-pandemic levels.

The arrival of large numbers to a relatively small city can create problems, however. For example, the influx of visitors that began last year at Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore, which are not even tourist spots, resulted in limits being set, and in the case of NTU, security being increased.

The phenomenon even made the Wall Street Journal, where a December 2024 piece highlighted “dodging Chinese tourists” as the biggest challenge of Singapore’s university students. Visitors have come to NTU because of its beautiful buildings. The Hive, in particular, draws tourists in “to see the famed dim sum basket building.” Many students complained of being disturbed by tourists, some of whom came in large numbers. There were even incidents of tour groups entering lecture halls and listening in on lessons.

And while the World Economic Forum called Singapore the top performer in travel and tourism development in the region, the global management consulting company McKinsey & Company has warned that overtourism may affect cultural sites’ integrity, which could mean a negative experience for locals and tourists alike.

Singapore may not yet have the same problems as other Asian hotspots, but there are rumblings of discontent about overcrowding incidents, even on public transport, among locals on social media.

Case in point: On r/NUS, a commenter posted about three tourist buses containing between 30 and 40 people each arriving at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) within a 15-minute period. The volume of visitors made it difficult for students who needed to use the canteen, libraries, and other campus facilities.

“Toilet situations are terrible, too. Imagine having 10 minutes between classes and you not only have to fight with the students but the huge group of tourists,” the post author wrote. /TISG

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