Tourists from mainland China reportedly accounted for some 18% of the international visitors that entered Singapore during the first half of 2017 with their 1.55 million individual arrivals representing an increase of some 5% year-on-year.

According to a report from GGRAsia citing official statistics from the Singapore Tourism Board, the figures mean that mainland Chinese holidaymakers again topped the tourism market of the former British enclave as it welcomed in excess of 8.54 million total international guests during the six-month period.

The figures also reportedly show that tourists from nearby Indonesia chalked up some 1.47 million individual visits to Singapore for the six months to the end of June, which represented a rise of 4% year-on-year, while those visiting from India posted a 15% swell to finish in a distant third with 660,000.

GGRAsia reported that other major embarkation points for international tourists to Singapore included Malaysia as approximately 562,000 of its citizens visited during the first half of the year alongside Australia with just over 523,100 and the Philippines at 380,700. The six-month figures purportedly furthermore show that in excess of 361,500 Japanese arrived in the city-state as well as 315,400 South Koreans and 265,600 from the United Kingdom.

Singapore is home to the Resorts World Sentosa integrated casino resort from Genting Singapore as well as Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s iconic Marina Bay Sands counterpart and GGRAsia cited brokerage firm Sanford C Bernstein Limited as reporting a 7.8% boost year-on-year in the venues’ first-half aggregated gross gaming revenues.

GGRAsia reported that the Singapore Tourism Board additionally explained that six-month receipts from ‘sightseeing, entertainment and gaming’ had risen by 5% year-on-year while the period saw visitors from China, Indonesia and India spend almost $2.95 billion on non-gaming activities.