Singapore - Singapore's October tourism arrivals dropped by 8.1 per cent to 843,000 visitors from the same month a year ago, the Singapore Tourism Board said Wednesday.

Indonesia (with 157,000 visitors), China (76,000), Australia (76,000), India (67,000) and Malaysia (54,000) were Singapore's top five visitor-generating markets and accounted for 51 per cent of the total visitor arrivals for the month, it said.

Singapore has seen a decline in visitor arrivals since June 2008, reflecting the impact of the global economic slowdown on consumer discretionary spending, the board said.

Visitor arrivals are expected to fall short of the 2008 targets of 10.8 million as are tourism receipts of the predicted 15.5 billion Singapore dollars (10.25 billion US), it added.

Singapore's gazetted hotels were estimated to generate 178 million Singapore dollars in revenue, representing a decline of 0.3 per cent from October 2007.

The average room rate in October 2008 was estimated at 241 Singapore dollars, representing an increase of 8.4 per cent over October 2007.

The average occupancy rate for gazetted hotels was estimated to reach 82 per cent in October 2008, posting a 6.8 percentage point decrease over October 2007. (dpa)