Singapore Unveils Greater Sentosa Plan to Double Visitors, Expand Hub Around RWS

Sentosa Development Corporation pulled back the curtain on the latest stage of its Greater Sentosa Master Plan (GSMP) at the "Your Island. Reimagined." exhibition at VivoCity on July 3rd. Under the 20-year vision, the 120-hectare island of Brani will be merged into Sentosa, extending Singapore's flagship leisure destination. SDC Chairman Edmund Koh, Minister Grace Fu, and CEO Thien Kwee Eng headlined the launch, where Thien described the initiative as "the greatest transformation in our history" and laid out an ambitious target: doubling the island's annual visitor numbers.

The island pulled in roughly 16.9 million visitors between April 2024 and March 2025, and international travelers made up about 80% of that figure. SDC now wants to rebalance that mix, pushing the local visitor share up from 20% toward 30% as Sentosa repositions itself under a new tagline — "Island Playground and Sanctuary in a Global City."

Genting Singapore's Resorts World Sentosa stands to gain the most from the plan's opening phase. Its RWS 2.0 redevelopment — a roughly SG$6.8 billion (US$5.28 billion) undertaking due to wrap up in 2030 — includes the Waterfront Lifestyle Development, two additional luxury hotels bringing 700 new rooms online, and a Super Nintendo World expansion at Universal Studios Singapore. RWS CEO Lee Shi Ruh told The Straits Times the master plan works in the resort's favor by drawing more visitors and widening the island's overall offering, and pointed to closer coordination ahead with the Singapore Tourism Board and other precinct stakeholders. The timing is notable: RWS's casino license comes up for renewal in February 2027, right as this expansion phase is meant to be gathering pace.

Further out, Brani West is pegged as one of the master plan's largest future attraction sites, with SDC saying talks with potential partners are already underway. That land only becomes available once the Brani Port Terminal, which currently takes up most of the island, relocates to Tuas Port, a move scheduled for 2027.

Connectivity has long been a sore point for RWS. Sitting offshore and reachable only by causeway, monorail, or cable car, the resort has faced a structural disadvantage against Marina Bay Sands, its city-center rival, a gap analysts have flagged as forcing RWS to work harder for footfall. The GSMP tries to close that distance with an Island Heart Transport Hub linking Sentosa and Brani, a new People Mover System designed to replace the aging Sentosa Express with higher capacity, and water taxi links currently under study.

The urgency behind those upgrades shows up clearly in the numbers. Genting Singapore's net profit fell 55% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, with revenue down about 3%, while Marina Bay Sands grew its Singapore revenue by 28% over the same stretch. That followed a rough 2025 for Genting Singapore, whose full-year net profit had already dropped 33% to SG$390.3 million (US$288 million).

Beyond the resort sector, the master plan leans heavily on new signature attractions. The Imbiah Canopy, set atop Mount Imbiah, will bundle attractions, dining, retail, and sheltered event space, with a treetop skywalk connecting it to Siloso Beach. A separate elevated forest walkway, the Imbiah Lookout Walk, will link Sensoryscape to Imbiah Lookout. Along the shoreline, a new icon called the Sensorium is planned to house lifestyle and indoor attractions.

SDC also intends to refresh Siloso, Palawan, and Tanjong beaches, pairing the work with coastal protection measures and exploring ideas like beach clubs, treetop dining, and an island-hopping route across Sentosa's 3-kilometer coastline. Sustainability and climate resilience are described as built into the plan from the outset, though SDC says the earliest of these coastal and landmark projects won't break ground until the early 2030s.