Government Spending on 2025 World Aquatics Championships Versus Benefits and Sponsorships Generated

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) what is the estimated number of international visitors expected to attend the 2025 World Aquatics Championships; (b) what methodology was used to arrive at this estimate; and (c) what is the projected total tourism revenue to be generated from these visitors.

Thank you, Sir. The World Aquatics Championships (WCH) is the highest tier of world championships in aquatics. WCH 2025 will be the first time that an edition of the WCH is being held in Southeast Asia. Global sports events such as WCH help Singapore to gain sporting prominence and mindshare internationally. As of January this year, our social media content on WCH 2025 has made more than 5.8 million impressions, across various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Weibo and XiaoHongShu.

WCH strengthens Singapore’s reputation as a top-tier destination for international sporting events and reinforces our capabilities in hosting such large-scale events. Beyond sports, the event will also have a related impact on tourism, hospitality and other industries, further raising Singapore’s profile as a travel destination.

The WCH 2025 will inspire local athletes and further encourage our population at large to participate in sports. Our Team Singapore athletes can gain valuable experience from competing against the best athletes in the world and this in turn will bolster their chances of doing well at future tournaments. Such opportunities to compete with the world’s best are significantly enhanced when world class competitions are held right here in Singapore.

The WCH is not just for athletes but also for all Singaporeans. The event will rally Singaporeans together to cheer for Team Singapore in SG60, and we are confident that it will spark greater interest amongst Singaporeans for aquatic sports and inspire our next generation of sporting talents. Singaporeans can look forward to a variety of related community activities organised at the sidelines of the main event. We expect up to 350,000 Singaporeans will have the opportunity to participate in these activities. Some of these community activities will be commencing soon in the lead-up to the main event, such as the SG60 Swim Challenge that we will launch in April this year.

We expect to welcome about 40,000 international visitors to Singapore for the World Aquatics and World Aquatics Masters Championships 2025. This is a conservative estimate and comprises spectators and other visitors such as athletes, officials, production crew, media. Based on this, the estimated incremental tourism receipts generated by these international visitors is estimated to be some $60 million. The final tourism receipts generated will be clearer after the event.

For us to be able to host any large-scale sport competitions of the highest tier, we would have to put in place additional supporting infrastructure, as was the case for previous host cities of the WCH. For instance, the recent editions of WCH in Fukuoka and Doha required the construction of temporary pools to facilitate the hosting of the events at WCH, and coordination across the different aquatic events for officials, athletes and fans.

For WCH 2025, with the OCBC Aquatic Centre hosting water polo and diving competitions, a temporary facility will be needed to host the swimming and artistic swimming competitions. And this is being constructed at Kallang. Besides using the facility for the WCH, it will also be used for the World Aquatics Masters Championships that would be held from 26 July to 22 August this year. We are also studying the possible extension of the temporary facility to be used as a training and competition venue for other local and regional meets, as well as for athlete training and for public use, beyond the hosting of the WCH.

If possible, this would further amortise the cost of staging the WCH. More details will be shared later as these require additional feasibility studies.

The construction cost of the temporary facility is being finalised, but it is expected to be comparable to that of other host cities which built temporary facilities to host the WCH.

As host country, we aim to deliver a positive event experience for athletes and spectators alike, while being fiscally prudent and cost-effective. The organising committee has been careful to reduce costs where possible, while working hard to secure sponsorships for these events. These sponsorships will help us defray some costs associated with operations and logistics of the event. We have a sponsorship target and we are making good progress towards it. We are in active discussions with various sponsors and we will reveal them progressively. At this point of time, we are unable to disclose details of the sponsorships due to commercial sensitivity.

The success of this event will depend on Singaporeans’ support. So, let us cherish this opportunity to show the world what we can do as a nation united and deliver a championships that we can and will be proud of.

Sir, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his response. Can I confirm that the temporary venue for this WCH event will remain up after the event, or will it be torn down? I am mainly concerned about ensuring that the public resources put into constructing the temporary sporting venue are put to good use.

My second question is, is the temporary sporting venue model expected to be a standard approach for hosting future large-scale sporting events in Singapore? How does the Ministry ensure that the resources spent on such temporary infrastructure deliver long-term benefits, beyond a single event, to contribute to Singapore's sporting ecosystem, rather than simply fulfilling international bodies' hosting needs?

Sir, I thank Mr Giam for his supplementary questions. With regard to the temporary venue, as I had mentioned earlier, we are already looking into the possible extension of the use of that facility for competitions, training and public use beyond WCH. The temporary venue actually sits on the footprint of the Kallang Alive masterplan. More fine grain details of the masterplan are currently being worked through. Various agencies like Sport Singapore, the Urban Redevelopment Authority for instance, will have to consider the various use cases of the plot for the mid to longer term. Definitely, we will be considering whether we can extend the use of the venue beyond its WCH utility.

On his second question about cost, I think a common stance amongst organisers of such international, global sporting events, us included, will be not to be more excessive than past editions of the same event. After considering sponsorships that we have garnered so far, I think it is reasonable for us to make a stand that we are more or less on track with this position.