Singapore tourism receipts up 18percent on year

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Friday said that the 2011 final estimates for tourism receipts came in at S$22.3 billion, up 18 per cent on-year.

STB adds that Asia's share of tourism receipts continued to grow.

Tourism receipts from Philippines and Japan rose most rapidly when compared to 2010.

STB says Philippines share of tourism receipts was up 34 per cent due to a strong increase in visitor arrivals and hotel accommodation expenditure.

Meanwhile, the United States and United Kingdom saw a decline in their share of tourism receipts as travellers were affected by the poor economic conditions.

Nevertheless, STB says as a whole, Europe's tourism receipts still grew at 4 per cent in 2011.

For the whole of 2011, a record of about 13.2 million international visitors arrived in Singapore - up by 13 per cent compared to the previous year. STB says 76 per cent of the visitors were from Asia.

Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Australia and India were Singapore's top five international visitor-generating markets last year.

STB says there was healthy visitor arrival growth seen from North Asia, Greater China and the Philippines.

It attributes the growth to greater air connectivity, especially the low-cost carriers, and popularity of the new attractions offered by both integrated resorts.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, STB says international visitor arrivals stood at about 3.3 million, an increase of 8 per cent over the previous year.

Arrivals for December was also the second highest ever recorded thus far for any single month at 1.2 million.

Meanwhile, tourism receipts for the fourth quarter was up 9 per cent on-year at an estimated S$5.6 million.

Source - channelnewsasia