Singapore aims to host at least 800 000 Indian tourists this year
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After witnessing a decline in the number of arrivals of Indians to the city-state to 726 000 in 2009 from 778 000 in 2008, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the South East Asian nation’s apex tourism promotion body, said it expects the growth numbers in double digit this year.STB also aims to make India among the top three countries on the basis of foreign tourists inflow into Singapore within a few years time, up from the current fifth spot.”This year we are looking at a double digit growth of tourists arrivals into Singapore from India, though we have not yet fixed a final target. We expect good growth in both the business and leisure segments,” Singapore Tourism Board Area Director Sork Lee Toh told PTI.A minimum of 10% growth in Indian tourist arrival this year from last year’s 726 000 would result the country hosting nearly 800 000 visitors from India.This year STB is confident of a revival in the business segment as well as continued growth among leisure segment travellers, she added.In order to woo more tourists, STB recently launched its ‘New Singapore’ campaign to promote the country with India as one of the major target markets.”Currently, India is placed number five among visitor generating markets for Singapore. We believe it can be among top three within a few years,” Sork said.As against 726000 Indian arrivals, 1.7 million Indonesians visited Singapore in 2009, followed by 937 000 Chinese, 830 000 Australians and 764 000 Malaysians.In terms of revenue generation for the city-state, Indian travellers currently fourth, contributing US$ 891 million (SG$ 1.2 billion) in Singapore’s total tourism receipt of US$ 12.4 billion in 2008, after Indonesia, China and Australia.The average length of stay for visitors from India to Singapore is 5.7 days, she added.There are currently over 150 flights weekly between the two countries by various carriers including Singapore Airlines, Air India, Jet Airways, Silk Air, Qantas Airlines and Tiger Airways.Overall the city-state received 9.7 million foreign tourists in 2009 and is looking to increase it to at least 11.5 million this year.”We are promoting the concept of free and independent travel under our new campaign. In India, it will involve a 360 degree media campaign, involving television commercial, Internet and other media,” she said.
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