Chinese tourists are back, but the high rollers aren’t

They're going to Japan and Thailand instead.

The number of Chinese tourists to Singapore surged by an impressive 20% in 2015, but overall tourism receipts contracted on back of lower tourist spending.

According to a report by HSBC, Singapore is simply not attracting enough luxury Chinese tourists, who are instead opting for other regional destinations like Japan and Thailand.

"We believe Singapore has overcapacity in terms of luxury shopping as high hopes of new infrastructure developments and notably the emergence of gaming have not sufficiently translated, in our view, into shopping per se," HSBC said.

But all is not lost for Singapore. HSBC said that spending might rebound following a decline in the currency. Singapore tourism will also be buoyed by the return of the Chinese to the traditional Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand route.

"Clearly, concerns have now eased. The number of Chinese visitors to Singapore rebound 20% last year and we see further low to mid-teens growth this year," said the report.

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