Visitor arrivals in Singapore, totaling a record monthly high of 876,561 in July, grew 9.2 percent over the same month of last year, according to the figures released by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Friday.

The STB attributed the robust growth to the city state's hosting of the 117th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in early July, as well as its successful in-market promotions.

Of the total, 94,000 visitors came from China, up 1 percent from a year ago, while Indonesia and Australia contributed 192,000and 61,000 visitors respectively last month.

These three countries, together with India and Japan, were Singapore's top five visitor-generating markets for the month, which accounted for more than half of the total visitor arrivals.

Visitors from Vietnam and India increased by 47 percent and 31 percent respectively to reach 22,000 and 51,000 in July, the highest two in terms of the growing range, while the number of Japanese visitors declined by 11 percent in the same month.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2005)