Lower tourism receipts, visitor arrivals in H1 2015

TOURISM receipts slumped 12 per cent year on year to S$10.5 billion against a 3 per cent decline in visitor arrivals to 7.3 million in the first half of the year.

The tourism performance was dragged down partly by a sizeable drop in the number of business and meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) travellers, while the Singapore dollar has also strengthened against certain regional currencies.

However, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) highlighted that visitor arrivals have been on the rise since May, fuelled by a rebound from other top source markets such as China and India.

"For 1H15, visitor arrivals and tourism receipts from the leisure segment both grew by 1 per cent, which is a positive indicator that Singapore remains an attractive holiday destination," said the STB. "However, declines were observed for BTMICE visitor arrivals and their tourism receipts which had an impact on the overall tourism performance in 1H 2015."

Categories of spending which saw smaller expenditure in the first half included accommodation as well as sightseeing, entertainment and gaming.

In the hotel industry, all major metrics of operating performance - namely, average room rate (ARR), average occupancy rate (AOR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) - suffered declines in H1 2015.