It said 583,000 Indian tourists visited Singapore in 2004, an increase of 24 per cent.
A total of 8.9 million tourists visited the island city state in 2005, exceeding its 8.9 million visitor arrivals target and an increase of seven per cent over 2004.
The tourism sector generated an estimated $10.8 billion in tourism receipts in 2005, exceeding the target of $10.4 billion ($6.62 billion) and posting a growth of 10 per cent over 2004.
Total visitor days achieved a double-digit growth of 14 per cent to reach 30.6 million days in 2005, the STB announced at the ASEAN Tourism Forum held in Davao City, the Philippines.
Indonesia (1.8 million visitors), China (858,000 visitors), Australia (620,000 visitors), Japan (588,000 visitors) and India (583,000 visitors) emerged as the top five markets in 2005, accounting for about 50 per cent of total visitor arrivals, it said.
Asia (6.5 million visitors) continues to be an important source market for Singapore, contributing to over 73 per cent of the total visitor arrivals, an increase of 7 per cent over 2004.
Last year's robust performance was also driven by strong double-digit growths from markets such as Vietnam (42 per cent), the Philippines (30 per cent) and India (24 per cent), it said.
This is also the first time that India ranks as one of Singapore's top five markets, the STB said.
Based on the latest figures, the average occupancy rate for the hotel sector reached 84 per cent from January to November 2005, registering a growth of 4 percentage points over the same period in 2004.
Hotel room revenue also posted a double-digit growth of 15 per cent to reach $1.1 billion during this period.
At the Davao City ATF, the STB and its ASEAN counterparts renewed their commitment to strengthen regional cooperation to promote ASEAN as a single destination, and bolster tourism traffic into and within the region, said the STB.
With an estimated 50 million (30.2 per cent over 2003 and 16.0 per cent over 2002) international arrivals into ASEAN in 2004 and the growth of low cost carriers, the potential for the tourism traffic into and within ASEAN is tremendous, the statement said.
