Tourists splurge the most in Singapore vs other APAC countries

Expenditure in the city jumped 18% to US$254 a day in the last two years.

The Mastercard Asia Pacific Destinations Index revealed that whilst Bangkok remains the most visited destination in Asia Pacific, Singapore continues to beat the Thai capital in total visitor expenditure.

Over the past two years, Singapore has recorded a robust 18% growth in tourist spending. It attracted the highest spending visitors at US$254 per day, followed by Beijing at US$242, Shanghai at US$234, Hong Kong at US$211, and Taipei at US$208.

Overall tourism expenditure in the region jumped from US$141.5b in 2009 to US$244.9b in 2016, an 8.2% compound annual growth rate. Moreover, Asia Pacific’s top 20 source markets contributed US$201.5b to the region’s tourism revenues in 2016.

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The mass of tourists from Northeast Asia have helped to boost these earnings. Key findings from the index revealed China (17.%) and South Korea (8.%) as the largest contributors to tourism expenditure in Asia Pacific.

In fact, these two markets were also top source markets for Singapore (China #1), Bangkok (China #1) and Tokyo (Korea #1, China #2), the region’s leading destinations by visitor expenditure. As renowned global shopping and dining locales, they are popular amongst affluent Chinese and South Korean tourists seeking new shopping or culinary experiences.