Vietnamese visitor arrivals to Singapore numbered 90,000 in the first quarter of 2014, representing a double-digit positive growth rate of 13 percent, according to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

Outbound travel from Vietnam has also increased in recent years as travel as a lifestyle activity gains popularity among the Vietnamese, the board added.

Singapore’s international visitor arrivals in the January-March period held steady at 3.9 million from the same quarter last year. Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Australia, and Japan were Singapore’s top five tourist sources.

The Republic of Korea (RoK) was ranked seventh with 153,000 arrivals, up 17 percent year-on-year. The STB attributed the growth for RoK visitors to an appreciation of the Korean Won and the introduction of Scoot as the only low-cost carrier flying the Singapore-Seoul route from June 2013.

Conversely, arrivals from China slowed down by 14 percent year-on-year, following a decline of 31 percent in the last quarter of 2013, due to the continued impact of the tourism law that was introduced on October 1 last year.

Also according to a statement released by the STB on July 21, in the first quarter of this year, tourism receipts grew 5 percent year-on-year to 6.0 billion SGD, driven by sightseeing, entertainment and gaming (up 19 percent), accommodation (up 2 percent) and other components (up 5 percent). Gazetted hotel room revenue showed a 12- percent increase to hit 0.8 billion SGD.-VNA