Singapore had 4.9 mn visitors during first half of year

Mumbai, Aug 10 (UNI) Singapore's tourism industry hit record highs from January to June 2007 by achieving an estimated S$ 6.4 billion in tourism receipts and welcoming 4.9 million visitor arrivals.

For the first half of 2007, Indian arrivals grew by 15.1 per cent reaching S$ 3,86,000. The tourism sector received S$ 12.4 billion in annual tourism receipts in 2006, higher than S.8 billion in 2005 and S.8 billion in 2004. There were 9.7 million annual visitor arrivals in 2006 as compared to 8.9 million in 2005 and 8.3 million in 2004.

Singapore Tourism Board Regional Director Siew-Kheng Kang said, ''India's strong growth can be attributed to a higher disposable income among the residents as India's Gross Domestic Product grew by 9.1 per cent in January to March 2007, thereby contributing to a strong outbound potential.

''The growth in arrivals to Singapore was driven by a series of branding and promotional campaigns that ran throughout the period, such as the 'Integrated Family Campaign' and 'Summer Shopping Campaign', which generated strong destination awareness and interest.'' India, Indonesia, China and Australia alone accounted for 44 per cent of the over all visitor arrivals from January to June 2007, propelled by strong growth in their respective domestic economies.

Higher visitor arrivals in the first half of 2007 also resulted in higher visitor days which were estimated at 17.9 million, showing a 13.1 per cent increase during the same period last year, which is a record high number of visitor days for the period.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is an economic development agency for one of Singapore's key service sectors, tourism. The mission of the Board is to develop and champion tourism, so as to build the sector into a key driver of economic growth for Singapore.

The STB aims to differentiate and market Singapore as a memorable destination through the proliferation of the destination brand ''Uniquely Singapore'', informed Siew-Kheng Kang.

UNI