The number of tourists travelling to Singapore has gone up, but they are spending less money while holidaying in the city-state, especially on accommodation. In the first half of this year, 9.3 million tourists visited the Republic, a 1.3 per cent increase from the same six-month period last year, according to Singapore Tourism Board’s report on how the tourism sector here performed. Among the five components of tourism receipts, accommodation saw the biggest year-on-year decline of 13 per cent in the first half of 2019. Its director of digital transformation, Mr Poh Chi Chuan said the fall was because more visitors are choosing to stay in lower-tier hotels, or with friends and relatives. When asked whether home-sharing platform Airbnb had a role to play in the decline, Mr Michael Chiam, a tourism lecturer at NP said the illegality of Airbnb here meant the number of tourists using it in Singapore would be “very small” and would not make an impact on the tourism receipts for accommodation.... Continue Reading