Tourism spend gets a Q2 shot in the arm

Singapore

IT looks like the big spenders breezed into town, especially in the second quarter, sending first-half tourism spend by in-bound visitors up 12 per cent to S$11.6 billion year on year.

Visitor arrivals rose 13 per cent to 8.2 million, bolstered partly by a 55 per cent surge in visitors from China, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). China is now the biggest source market for Singapore, overtaking Indonesia.

STB said: "There has been a shift in our visitors' profile and in their spending patterns for some of our top source markets. Increasingly, we are seeing more visitors from major cities in markets such as India, Australia and Indonesia, who have a higher propensity to spend." In particular, these travellers are splashing out …