Singapore tourism posts record international arrivals in 2016

Singapore (VNA) – The Singapore Tourism Board (STB), on February 14, reported a record number of 16.4 million foreign visitors to the island nation last year, up 7.7 percent from 2015.

Tourism revenue followed the same path, growing 13.9 percent to reach 24.8 billion SGD (17.7 billion USD).

Singapore’s major tourist markets, including China, India and Indonesia, saw respective annual growth of 36, eight and six percent. By contrast, the volume of arrivals from Hong Kong and Malaysia to Singapore fell by 12 and 2 percent year on year, respectively.

STB chief executive Lionel Yeo said despite challenges such as weaker economic performance in some of the country’s top source markets and the Zika virus outbreak in August, tourism promotion measures taken in the past two years have contributed to the impressive results.

The measures included a 20-million-USD global campaign to attract visitors in 2015-2016, as well as restructuring to improve the capacity of hotels and travel agents.

The STB also supported a total of 52 technology-related projects through funds to help stakeholders of the non-smoke industry improve their operations. 

In 2017, Singapore aims at attracting between 16.4 and 16.7 million international tourists and earning around 25.8 billion SGD (18.2 billion USD).-VNA