(Yicai) July 18 -- China passed Indonesia to rank as Singapore’s main source of tourists in the first half of this year, a position it lost in the Covid-19 pandemic, after the two countries introduced a mutual visa-free entry policy in February.

Singapore received 1.45 million Chinese tourists in the six months ended June 30, according to the latest data from the Singapore Tourism Board. China was the island nation's largest source of visitors for three straight years before the pandemic.

Chinese tourists made just 1.36 million trips to Singapore last year, according to Xinhua News Agency. While their ranks were thinner than those visitors from Indonesia, they still spent the most.

The visa agreement between China and Singapore is conducive to bilateral people exchanges, promoting tourism as well as economic and trade development, Zhou Shixin, director of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies' Southeast Asian center, told Yicai.

Travel between the two reached 3.7 million people in the first half, up about 100,000 from the level of 2019, according to data released by Changi Airport, Singapore’s main international aviation hub. Most departed from and arrived in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Xiamen.

However, the number of flights between the two countries has yet to fully recover. Before the pandemic, Changi Airport had 16 airlines operating routes to and from 37 Chinese cities, while 15 carriers fly to 29 Chinese cities at present.

The strong pickup in tourism will continue to boost growth in accommodation, aviation, retail trade, food and beverage services, and finance and insurance, Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry has noted.

Singapore also hopes to grow tourism by holding conventions and exhibitions, Fu Qichuan, executive director of the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau, said to Yicai. Revenue from the exhibition sector accounts for roughly one-quarter of the country's tourism income, while business travelers consume about twice as much as ordinary tourists, Fu added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev