SINGAPORE (Oct 5): Singapore households are expected to double their overseas travel spending to almost US$45 billion (S$62 billion) by 2025, placing the country in seventh place globally according to Visa’s report, Mapping the Future of Global Travel and Tourism in Asia Pacific.

This would also rank the republic third in Asia Pacific, as international travel is also expected to double among Singapore households. Singapore currently ranks behind first-placed China (US$255.4 billion) and second-placed Hong Kong (US$47.4 billion).

The report took data from Visa estimates of households travelling overseas by comparing Visa-branded cardholders in a country who has made at least one face-to-face transaction abroad against the population of cardholders in the source country, adjusted to be representative of the source country’s population and used as inputs for forecasts by Oxford Economics.

Singapore currently spends US$22.5 billion on overseas travel, and will see a 99% increase in spending from now till 2025, second only to the fifth-placed Russian Federation which would see a 118% increase from US$22.6 billion to US$49.1 billion.

Ooi Huey Tyng, Visa Country Manager for Singapore and Brunei, notes that travel will continue to be a staple among Singaporeans.

“The increasing popularity of online travel portals and mobile travel apps, coupled with more convenient and secure electronic payment options, will allow travellers to book their next travel destination with greater ease and lead to continued growth in international travel,” says Ooi.

Older travellers aged 65 and above are also expected to double the number of current international travels by 2025, hitting 180 million trips. Older travelers are expected to be able to afford longer trips at higher prices, and will boost the trend of medical tourism, travelling for medical purposes, making it more popular in the future.

Singapore ranks first in this regard, with the average 852,000 trips taken by these older travelers in 2015 expected to hit 3.4 million in 2025, seeing a 305% increase. Fifth-placed Philippines is the only market seeing a bigger increase of 357% to 403,000 trips in 2025.

Ooi believes that Singapore’s position as an aviation hub is driving the trend of more older travelers taking trips and increasing spending.

“As one of the fastest growing tourism sectors in the region, senior travel brings tremendous opportunities for merchants in the tourism and hospitality industries,” says Ooi.