Singapore received its 9 millionth visitor early Wednesday morning when a Russian woman landed at Changi Airport.

 

Vladykina Elena was declared the lucky winner shortly after stepping off her flight from Moscow at 5:04 a.m. local time, with a warm welcome ceremony by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Channel NewsAsia reported.

 

She won complimentary hotel stays, shopping and spa vouchers, even business-class return tickets for two of Singapore Airlines, worth a total of 35,000 Singapore dollars (US$22,500).

 

The report said this was the first time visitor levels had surged past the 9-million mark, and in a much shorter time than expected.

 

"In 1995, we received more than 7 million visitors for the first time in a year but it took us almost 10 years before we hit the 8-million mark in 2004. Now it's taken us only two years to hit the 9 million mark," Chan Tat Hon, assistant chief executive of the STB told Channel NewsAsia.

 

The tourism board was confident that, at this rate, total tourist spending is expected to exceed 12 billion Singapore dollars (US$7.8 billion) this year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2006)