The figures are out: More than 2.7 million Chinese tourists came to Singapore in the first 10 months of 2017.

Based on the 10-month average, it can be estimated that more than 3 million Chinese tourists would have visited last year.

Chinese tourists form about one-fifth of all visitors

In each of those months, there were between 218,000 and 357,000 Chinese tourists here.

The total number is almost one-fifth of all visitor arrivals in Singapore.

Reasons for more Chinese tourists in Singapore

Chinese tourists traditionally favour Taiwan and South Korea as holiday destinations, but tensions with these two countries have caused visitor numbers to drop, benefiting Singapore in the process.

Since President Tsai Ing Wen took office, in May 2016, mainland visitors to Taiwan have been declining by about one-third.

And due to a missile systems deployment row with Beijing, Seoul saw a fall of over 40 percent of Chinese tourists since March 2017. China has unofficially banned group tours to South Korea.

More from tier three cities

Chinese tourists coming to Singapore have been from tier one cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and increasingly from the affluent middle class from tier two cities such as as Kunming and Fuzhou.

Moving forward, Chinese tourists will be coming from tier three cities as Singapore has stepped up efforts to woo them.

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Chinese tourists big spenders

The Chinese are on track to become the top spenders for the third year in a row.

They account for almost 18 percent of tourism receipts for the first half of last year.

In 2016, Chinese tourists accounted for S$3.5 billion worth of spending, mostly on shopping.

Some 2.86 million Chinese tourists visited Singapore that year. The increase in 2017 was expected, but moving forward, numbers could decrease but remain substantial.

China, Indonesia and Malaysia

Based on data from January to October 2017, Singapore’s top three source markets were China, Indonesia and India. Malaysia was not in the top three.

In 2016, Indonesia was the top visitor market. There were over 2.89 million visitors from Indonesia, followed by over 2.86 million from China and over a million from Malaysia.

Singapore's tourism sector contributed about 4.5 percent to gross domestic product, and directly and indirectly provided jobs to more than 320,000 people in 2017.

Editor's note, Jan. 26, 2018, 3am: The figures in the second and third last paragraphs of this article has been amended, following clarifications from the Singapore Tourism Board.