THE cruise industry is one tourism sector remaining buoyant during the current economic storm.

Although tourist arrivals to Singapore have been drifting for 12 straight months, the tide is turning in favour of cruise vacations.

For the first five months of this year, the Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront saw 459,000 passengers go through its gates - a 21 per cent increase from the same period last year, which registered 380,000 passengers.

Please read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.

weichean@sph.com.sg