Indians among top tourists in Singapore

SINGAPORE: A total of 829,000 Indian tourists visited Singapore in 2010, a 14 per cent increase vis-a-vis the previous year, the Singapore Tourism Board said in its annual report.

India was the fifth largest tourist generating market for Singapore, it said in the report on Thursday.

Indonesia was the top tourist generating market, with 2.3 million visitors last year, a 32 per cent increase from 2009, followed by China (1.17 million, up 25 per cent), Malaysia (1.04 million, up 36 per cent) and Australia (880,000, up 6 per cent.

In total, 11.6 million tourists visited Singapore in 2010, up 20 per cent year-on-year. The top five markets accounted for 53 per cent of the tourists last year, it said.

Revenue from tourism was estimated at 18.8 billion Singapore dollars last year, 61 per cent of which was spent on shopping, sightseeing, entertainment and accommodation.