New cruise terminal, MICE hub in the works at Marina South

SINGAPORE – Two new projects aimed at bolstering Singapore’s position as a global hub are being planned at Marina South, with a new integrated cruise and ferry terminal and an exhibition hub on the cards.

Speaking at the Tourism Industry Conference 2026, Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations Grace Fu said the Government is assessing the feasibility of locating the cruise and ferry terminal next to the existing Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore, as part of the development of the Greater Southern Waterfront.

Ms Fu, who is also Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, said the new terminal could support three cruise berths and up to 10 ferry berths.

The authorities have also identified an area near Marina Bay MRT station as the potential location of the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) hub, she said.

It will complement other MICE venues in the city such as Raffles City, Suntec City and Marina Bay Sands.

The hub “is envisioned as an integrated development, offering MICE facilities, accommodation, dining and retail, entertainment and attractions”, said Ms Fu, who was speaking at the conference in the Resorts World Convention Centre.

“Its proximity to the potential new cruise terminal will also create exciting new possibilities,” she said.

The hub, added Ms Fu, will allow Singapore to host more and bigger events downtown, and run complementary ones concurrently at other city-centre venues.

The development schedules for the cruise and ferry terminal, as well as the MICE hub, have not been announced.

Visuals provided at the conference show that the planned cruise centre will be built on a piece of land that will be reclaimed. This is part of broader plans to add around 213ha of land to Singapore’s southern coastline, revealed by the Housing Board – the Government’s agent for the reclamation project – on April 8.

Ms Fu said the new terminal will have a combined capacity that is 1.5 times that of the existing Marina Bay terminal’s 11,700 passengers, and twice that of the existing HarbourFront Passenger Terminal.

“This represents not only a significant increase in international cruise capacity, but also greater regional connectivity,” she said.

Planning for the new terminal comes on the back of a recent study, which showed that Singapore’s share of the cruise industry’s economic output was the largest in South-east Asia in 2024, at US$3.6 billion (S$4.6 billion).

The same study found that Singapore captured 48 per cent of the 3.9 million cruise passenger visits to the region that year.

Since 2025, Singapore has diversified its cruise options with new ships making the Republic their home port.

The most high-profile of the lot was Asia’s first Disney cruise ship, the Disney Adventure, which set sail on its maiden voyage on March 10.

The new terminal in Marina South has been several years in the making, with The Straits Times reporting in 2022 that the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) would study the need for new cruise and ferry infrastructure in the Republic. This is to ensure the country is ready to capture growing demand in the medium to long term.

In May 2024, ST reported that there were plans for Singapore’s two existing cruise terminals to be consolidated in the coming years, with the cruise centre in HarbourFront set to move, so that a continuous promenade can be established as part of the Greater Southern Waterfront.

As for the exhibition hub, it comes as Singapore increasingly positions MICE as a high-value pillar of its tourism economy.

Business travellers are typically among the tourism sector’s biggest spenders, often contributing significantly more per trip than leisure travellers through accommodation, dining and corporate entertainment. STB estimates that they spend around twice as much as leisure visitors.

MICE visitors are also closely tied to industries Singapore is seeking to grow, including technology, healthcare, sustainability and finance.

Ms Fu said having the planned MICE hub and other MICE venues within 3km of one another will create “a vibrant MICE cluster that blends work and play”.

She noted that delegates attending events at the MICE hub can enjoy various leisure offerings, including the upcoming Therme Singapore wellness facility and a redeveloped section of Gardens by the Bay.

Ms Fu said Singapore’s MICE portfolio will grow through strategic industry tie-ups.

For instance, STB has established a two-year partnership with the Academy of Medicine Singapore, which will create “opportunities to host more best-in-class conferences that serve the medical community’s professional development”.

She also said 22 hotels have come together to launch the Singapore Hotels Incentives for Business Events (SHINE) initiative.

These hotels cover a quarter of the country’s hotel room stock, and the initiative offers attractive accommodation packages to meeting organisers, improving Singapore’s competitiveness for larger MICE bids, she said.

Key MICE events held recently include the World Sleep Congress 2025 and first-in-Asia editions of HealthTechX Asia 2025 and LSI Asia 2025, a medical technology summit.

The Republic will also host notable events in 2026, including the World Cities Summit 2026, Medical Fair Asia 2026 and Passenger Terminal Expo Asia.

As ASEAN chairman in 2027, Singapore will also host more than 250 ASEAN meetings of varying scales, such as the ASEAN Tourism Forum in January that year.

In 2024, Singapore received about 1.1 million MICE visitors, who generated $1.7 billion in tourism receipts – surpassing pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when 730,000 MICE travellers contributed $1.4 billion.