S'pore tourist arrivals up

S'pore tourist arrivals up

SINGAPORE (AFP): Tourist arrivals in Singapore rose 6.4 percent from a year earlier to 584,121 in April, taking the number of visitors for the first four months to 2.42 million, according to figures released yesterday.

Visitor arrivals during January-April increased 5.2 percent from the first four months of 1995, the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board said.

Japanese arrivals rose 11.8 percent in April alone to 80,079 while the number of Malaysian visitors was up 17.0 percent to 54,472.

Arrivals from South Korea rose 27.6 percent to 26,761 thanks to strong holiday traffic and a large number of honeymooners, while the number of Thai tourists fell 14.2 percent to 31,643, it said.

For January-April, Japanese arrivals increased 9.1 percent from a year before to 392,727. Indonesians made up the second- biggest group of tourists to the island republic despite their number declining 2.7 percent to 322,859.