SINGAPORE - Consumers made a total of 24,721 complaints to the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) last year, down 15.5 per cent from the 29,254 in 2013.

This is the largest drop since at least 2005, said Case, which released the full-year statistics on Tuesday.

Complaints against the timeshare industry dropped 42.5 per cent - the largest fall.

This was followed by a drop in the motorcars industry (-36 per cent). Both the maid agencies industry and the handphone industry also received 31 per cent fewer complaints each.

The only industry that saw gains was the travel industry, which received 40 per cent more complaints. This is likely due to the abrupt closure of tour agencies last year, like Five Star Tours, said Case's executive director Seah Seng Choon.

There was great improvement in timeshare, he said, likely due to new regulations that prohibit businesses from collecting payment during the cooling-off period.

And complaints in the handphone industry could have taken a nose-dive after widespread media publicity of dishonest traders in Sim Lim Square, he said.

Sales of motorcars was down last year due to loan curbs; and complaints against maid agencies fell due to dampened demand for foreign domestic workers, he said.