Visitor arrivals fall 1.2% to 7 million in January to May

May arrivals declined 9.7% YoY, dragged by weaker arrivals from key markets including mainland China, Indonesia, India, and Australia.

In May, mainland China remained Singapore’s top source market with 204,640 arrivals, followed by Indonesia with 170,130, India with 144,010, Malaysia with 111,910, and Australia with 83,510.

Among these markets, arrivals from mainland China fell 15.4% YoY, whilst Indonesia declined 14.0%. Malaysia’s arrivals were flat from a year earlier, whilst India and Australia posted single-digit declines.

For the first five months of 2026, China was Singapore’s largest source market with about 1.34 million arrivals, followed by Indonesia with 966,170.

Malaysia ranked third with 549,900 arrivals, followed by Australia with 510,530 and India with 498,110.

By age group, visitors aged 35 to 44 and 25 to 34 accounted for the largest shares of arrivals, at about 1.45 million and 1.44 million, respectively.

Air remained the dominant mode of arrival, accounting for 79.4% of visitor arrivals from January to May. Land arrivals made up 10.5%, whilst sea arrivals accounted for 10.1%.

The January-to-May tally represents about 40% of STB’s full-year 2026 forecast of 17 million to 18 million visitor arrivals.