Drop in Indian tourist in Singapore in H1

The number of Indian tourists in Singapore dipped by one per cent on the year to 492,000 in the first half of 2014, according to latest offical figures Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Spending by Indian tourists during the first half was also down by three per cent on the year at 284 million dollars, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said today.
However, India remains the top five tourist generating markets for Singapore, the STB said, adding that Indians are the third largest spenders in Singapore.
Overall, tourist arrivals in Singapore were down by 2.8 per cent at 7.5 million due to a 30 per cent drop in visitors from China.

STB said 871,000 Chinese tourists visited Singapore during January-June 2014, this was 30 per cent drop on the year due to new restrictive China Tourism Law implemented in October last year.
In addition, regional events like the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the abduction of Chinese tourists in Malaysia, and the political unrest in Thailand have all had a dampening effect on Chinese tourism, said STB.

Singapore received 1.525 million tourists during the first half from Indonesia, a three per cent from its largest tourist generating market.
Tourist arrivals during the first six months fell by 2 per cent to 592,000 from Malaysia and dropped 3 per cent to 529,000 from Australia, the third and fourth biggest markets for Singapore.

Tourism receipts continued to grow at 5 per cent year-on- year to hit 6 billion dollars, while gazetted hotel room revenue rose 8.8 per cent to 1.6 billion dollars.