Singapore expects its tourism receipts for 2013 at about 24.5 billion Singapore dollars (19.6 U. S. dollars) and its visitor arrivals at least 14.8 million, S Iswaran, the city-state's Minister in Prime Minister's Office said in Parliament on Monday.

According to earlier estimate by the country's tourism board, Singapore expected 23-24 billion Singapore dollars (18.4-19.2 U.S. dollars) in tourism receipts and 13.5-14.5 million visitor arrivals for last year. It expects moderate growth in its tourism sector this year.

Global tourism growth is moderating and visitor arrivals to Singapore cannot continue to grow at the rates seen in recent years, the minister said in a statement.

According to a biennial report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Singapore ranked first in Asia in terms of the travel and tourism industry competitiveness. It ranked tenth among all 140 countries and regions all around the world. The report is said to use a combination of data from publicly available sources, international travel and tourism institutions and experts.

Singapore has few historic heritage or natural scenery due to its short history and limited territory. But it performed well in tourism sector not only because it's the air hub in this Southeast Asia, but it's on-going man-made attractions and leisure experiences as well.

"Domestically, our land and manpower constraints mean we need to find new ways to do more with less. The next phase of tourism growth would thus have to come from increasing the yield through visitor spend, rather than just visitor numbers. And this transformation and change is timely because externally, the expected rise in Asian tourism over the coming years presents a window for us to attract discerning travelers who seek out differentiated and value-added experiences," Iswaran added in Parliament.

According to official data, in terms of per capita expenditure, Chinese tourists spent 1,337 Singapore dollars (1,071 U.S. dollars) in 2011, tripled from 467 Singapore dollars (374 U.S. dollars) in 2002.

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