Singapore: A total of 94,332 Indian tourists visited Singapore in October, up from 81,014 in the preceding month, according to a media report Tuesday.
India was rated as a third tourist-generating market for Singapore, overtaking Malaysia and Australia.
“A total of 94,332 Indian tourists visited Singapore in October, up from 81,014 in the preceding month. It took over countries such as Malaysia and Australia,” said the data released by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Malaysia, which came in fourth, with 88,641 tourist arrivals, down from 89,384 in September.
Australia, which rounded out the top five, was the source of 88,032 visitors, down from 104,497 in the preceding month.
So far in 2023, Singapore has welcomed some 11.3 million visitor arrivals, against the 12 million to 14 million arrivals that STB expects to hit in the full year, according to the media reports.
Overall, Singapore’s international visitor arrivals slipped month on month for the third consecutive month to 1,125,948 in October, the report said.
This was a touch lower than the 1,130,757 visitors posted in September – but still 37.8 per cent higher than the 816,833 visitors recorded in October 2022.
Tourism arrival patterns in 2023 reflect seasonal trends – a boost in July and August from inbound Chinese arrivals, before tapering in September and October – which were also observed pre-pandemic, said DBS Bank analyst Geraldine Wong.
Indonesia was again the top source of visitors to Singapore in October, with 180,881 tourists visiting from the country. This marked a jump from the 175,601 tourists in September.
The next largest source country was China, from which 122,764 visitors hailed in October, dropping from 135,677 in September.
Wong noted nuances in the Chinese outbound footprint in recent months due to safety concerns travelling to both Thailand and Japan.
“This may have diverted some footprint into Singapore instead in the immediate term,” the report quoted Wong as saying.
However, she believes that this was not enough to offset the seasonality patterns.
PTI
