Today marks the first anniversary of Singapore Airlines’ direct international flights to the capital.
Singapore Airlines’ first flight touched down this day last year as part of the Capital Express route connecting Singapore, Canberra and Wellington, New Zealand.
The flights have opened up the Canberra region to international markets, bringing significant economic and social benefits for the estimated region’s 900,000 people across tourism, trade, investment, education and freight.
In terms of visitors coming to Canberra, the Top 5 international markets according to Singapore Airlines were Wellington, Singapore, London, Delhi and Hong Kong.
And for people flying out of Canberra, the most popular destinations were Wellington, Singapore, London, Phuket and Saigon.
International visitation to Canberra is at an all-time high with the latest Tourism Research Australia data to the end of June 2017 showing 221,479 visitors came to the capital, a jump of 9.1 per cent on the previous year. These visitors injected an additional $115 million into the ACT economy.
We’ve put together this video showing some facts and figures covering the first year.