Visitor spending down 12% in first half as arrivals drop

Singapore

HEADWINDS depressed tourism spend in the first half of this year, as tourism receipts slumped 12 per cent year on year to S$10.5 billion against a smaller decline in visitor arrivals.

Visitor arrivals slid about 3 per cent to 7.3 million due to softening volumes from key source markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. The tourism performance in the first half of the year was dragged down partly by a sizeable drop in the number of business travellers (BT) 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. Preliminary numbers from the STB show that for the first eight months of the year, visitor a…