Visitor arrivals in Singapore fell slightly in October, the Tourism Board said Tuesday, as the city-state's hotel industry continues to suffer from slumping revenues. In October, 845,000 tourists came to Singapore, down 0.5 per cent from a year ago, the board said in a statement.

The average occupancy rate climbed to 82.7 per cent, the highest so far in 2009, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to October 2008.

However, hotel-room revenue for October was estimated at 135 million Singapore dollars (97.3 million US dollars), a hefty drop by 24.4 per cent year-on-year, the board said, with the average room rate falling 24.2 per cent to 181 Singapore dollars.

Singapore's tourism sector was hit hard by the global recession as people cut back on business and leisure travel.

In September, it had shown signs of a rebound when visitor arrivals rose 7.1 per cent, the first year-on-year growth in 2009.

But the growth was mainly due to a double-digit rise in tourist arrivals from Malaysia and Indonesia as both neighbouring countries had a holiday season.

For the whole 2009, Singapore is targeting 9 to 9.5 million visitors generating 12 to 12.5 billion Singapore dollars revenue.

Last year, 10.1 million tourists visited the city-state bringing a record high of 14.8 billion Singapore dollars in tourism receipts.

Singapore tries to expand its tourism sector, largely building its hopes on two casinos - Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World at Sentosa - both set to open in the first quarter of 2010.