Singapore tourist arrivals drop

Singapore tourist arrivals drop

SINGAPORE: Visitor arrivals in Singapore slumped five percent in July from a year ago, but China remained the star performer against the trend with a double-digit jump, authorities said Tuesday.

"Traffic from China continued to grow as a result of the country's strong economic performance," the Singapore Tourism Board said.

Chinese arrivals were up 12.2 percent, with a significant 42.3 percent increase in the number of repeat visitors, said the board.

Of the 679,198 people who arrived in Singapore in July, Indonesians topped the list with 139,863 arrivals, up three percent from the same period in 2001.

Japanese contributed the second largest number of arrivals at 66,529, down 12.9 percent, making it the biggest decline of the 12 markets covered by the board in the monthly monitor of arrivals.

Australia ranked third with 54,239, down 2.2 percent followed by China with 51,144.

Neighbouring Malaysia was fifth with 41,145, posting the second biggest drop behind Japan. -- AFP