Business News
Singapore tourism revenue up 49 per cent thanks to casinos
Feb 10, 2011, 7:13 GMT
Singapore - Singapore's tourism revenue jumped by almost half to a 10-year-high last year helped by the opening of two casino resorts and positive economic sentiment, the city-state's tourism board said Thursday.
Tourism revenue soared 49 per cent year-on-year to 18.8 billion Singapore dollars (14.72 billion US dollars) in 2010, with shopping, sightseeing and entertainment counting for most of the tourism receipts, the board said.
Visitor arrivals reached 11.6 million, a 20-per-cent increase compared to a year earlier.
The forecast for 2011 would be released later in the year, a spokeswoman for the board said.
In December, visitor arrivals rose 15.9 per cent year-on-year to a record monthly high of 1.13 million.
Singapore's two multi-billion-dollar casino resorts - Resorts World Sentosa, which includes South-East Asia's first Universal Studios theme park, and Marina Bay Sands - opened in February and April, respectively.
The government had lifted a 40-year-old ban on gambling to shift Singapore's economy towards services such as tourism and away from low-skilled manufacturing.
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