SINGAPORE (Aug 29): International tourist arrivals to Singapore rose 14% to 4.1 million in 1Q16, compared with the same quarter last year, according to a report by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Monday.

For the first half of 2016 compared with the same 6-month period last year, the number of international tourist arrivals to Singapore rose 12.5% to 8.2 million.

The number of visitors from China surged 47% in the first quarter to 747,000, overtaking Indonesia as the Republic’s top visitor-generating market.

Singapore’s top five international visitor-generating markets in 1Q16 – China, Indonesia (704,000), Malaysia (270,000), Australia (257,000), and India (225,000) – accounted for more than half of international visitor arrivals in 1Q16.

However, tourism receipts grew just 2% to S$5.4 billion.

This was mainly due to a decline in gaming revenue at Singapore’s two integrated resorts, which offset gains from the Shopping, Accommodation, and Food & Beverage components.

Tourism receipts from Shopping expenditure rose 25% to S$1.20 billion; Accommodation expenditure grew 7% to S$1.17 billion; and Food & Beverage expenditure increased 14% to S$606 million.

Meanwhile, expenditure in the Sightseeing, Entertainment & Gaming component fell 21% in 1Q16 to S$1.08 billion.

Gazetted hotel room revenue grew 4.6% y-o-y to an estimated S$0.8 billion for 1Q16, but revenue per available room (RevPar) declined by 2.3% y-o-y.

This was due to a weakened Average Room Rate (ARR), even though Average Occupancy Rate (AOR) increased, STB says in its report.