I think sometimes we are spoilt for choice; you go into a restaurant and they pile you with choices, you go online and you're inundated with choice: Which app? Who do I read? What do I want to buy?

Well, the good news is for those who attended the recent Singapore Tourism Industry Conference, the choice was made clear – there is no choice but for Singapore to go the quality route (a small place can only handle so many tourists and locals are already complaining about the size of the foreign resident population) and besides, there are not enough hands to do the work if it gets masses of tourists.

And for hoteliers and everyone else in service complaining about the lack of staff – I hear the foreign quota has been further cut – well, you also have no choice but to get on with it because the restrictions are here to stay – for now.

That was the clear message sent out by the STB when it outlined its strategy, "Navigating the next phase of tourism growth" at the event attended by more than 800 industry members. The salient words are quality and high-yield.

Lionel Yeo, chief executive, outlined four factors that made this path of no-choice inevitable – increasingly discerning travellers, intensifying regional competition, slower workforce growth and "the visitor economy's impact on the resident population grows more immediate".

Asia will continue to be the main focus, already accounting for 75% of visitors. Its top source markets – Indonesia, China, India and Malaysia – make up slightly over 40% of tourism receipts and half of visitor arrivals.

Tourism receipts measured by STB do not include sightseeing, entertainment and gaming and when you consider the fact that spending at VIP tables at Marina Bay Sands reached US$18.21 billion (S$22 billion) between January and March this year, up 42.2 per cent from the same period last year – the highest quarterly volume in MBS's history – you know gaming is big business for tiny Singapore.

Excluding this though, it is clear Singapore is facing pressures on tourism receipts, a measure of quality tourism. There was a jump in TR between 2009 and 2011 – from S$12.6b to S$22.3b in the two years – but between 2011 and 2012, there's only a small growth to $23b, showing the halo effect of the Integrated Resorts is dimming.

So short of building another game-changing attraction, Singapore needs to get smart about its tourism growth. The STB shared four roads it would take – adopting a yield-driven marketing approach, enhancing destination attractiveness, supporting industry competitiveness and building local engagement.

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