SINGAPORE- International visitor arrivals to Singapore rose by 7 per cent in June 2016, compared with June 2015, Singapore Tourism Board(STB) said on Monday (Aug 29).

"This was driven by good growth rates from some top source markets such as China and India," STB said.

A total of 747,000 tourists from China visited Singapore in June 2016, almost double the number in June 2015. There was a 10 per cent rise to 225,000 visitors from India during the same period.

While STB did not give tourist receipt figures for June, it gave numbers for the first quarter of this year. From January to March 2016, tourism receipts grew by 2 per cent to reach $5.4 billion.

Shopping, accommodation and food and beverage expenditures grew "significantly", compensating for the fall in sightseeing spending due largely to the decline in gaming revenue as reported by the integrated resorts, a spokesman said.

The hotel room revenue for gazetted hotels, or those that are mainly in the prime or tourist areas and charge nightly rates only, was estimated at $0.8 billion for the first quarter, a growth of 4.6 per cent year-on-year, she added.

While the average occupancy rate increased, the revenue per available room dropped by 2.3 per cent year-on-year due to a drop in average room rate.