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Visitor arrivals in Singapore rose 17.6% in January from a year earlier to reach 908,000, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said on Friday.
Average hotel room rates in January fell 9.5% from a year earlier to S$187 ($133) although occupancy rose 13.9 percentage points from a year ago to 80.4%, the STB said in a statement.
The number of "visitor days" — the overall visitor arrivals times an average length of stay of each visitor — grew 8.7% in January from a year earlier to 3.6 million days.
Hit by the global recession, export-dependent Singapore suffered a fall of tourists in 2009. The number of visitors to Singapore fell by 4.3% last year to 9.7 million, driving the revenue from the sector down 19% to $12.4 billion.
Singapore is trying to expand tourism as part of efforts to reduce its reliance on manufacturing, luring tourists to the city-state's two casino resorts.
The US$4.7 billion ($6.62 billion) Resort World on Sentosa, owned by Malaysia's Genting Group (GENT.KL), opened its doors to visitors on the Chinese New Year and the US$5.5 billion Las Vegas Sands (LVS.N) owned Marina Bay Sands will partially open in April.
Each casino -- is expected to contribute a value add of $2.7 billion, or 0.5 to 1%, to Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015, STB estimates.
