Singapore announced Thursday it aims to achieve 13.6 billion Singapore dollars (US$about 8.83 billion) in tourism receipts and 10.2 million in visitor arrivals in 2007, after seeing strong performance last year.

 

"These aggressive targets are testimony of our confidence that the strong tourism performance could be sustained going forward," Lim Hng Kiang, minister for Trade and Industry, said at a tourism industry event.

 

2006 was a record breaking year for Singapore's tourism sector, registering new records in tourism receipts of 12.4 billion Singapore dollars (US$8.1 billion) and visitor arrivals of 9.7 million.

 

He said that the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will build a pipeline of projects this year that will capitalize on the heightened interest in Singapore as a tourism destination.

 

He announced that Berlin-based International Tourism Fair (ITB), the world's largest tourism trade show, has agreed to launch an Asian edition in Singapore in 2008, which he believed will attract tourism exhibitors and trade visitors from all over the world, giving a boost to Singapore's Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry.

 

Traditional sourcing markets aside, the STB will also make efforts to tap on emerging markets showing strong outbound potential, such as the Middle East and Russia in 2007, according to the minister.

 

It will also open an office in Moscow in the first half of this year, bringing the number of the STB offices worldwide to 23, he added.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2007)