Tourists are ditching Singapore for exotic Northeast Asian destinations

Is ASEAN losing the battle for more visitors?

The increasing popularity of Northeast Asian destinations is knocking the wind out of Singapore tourism's sails, according to a report by Macquarie.

Singapore and neighbouring countries Thailand and Malaysia have seen flagging visitor numbers in past quarters.

In contrast to these bleak statistics is the increase in tourist numbers for Northeast Asian destinations such as Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan.

Macquarie noted that the Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand market saw a declining number of Chinese tourists in the first quarter of the year, while Northeast Asian markets saw a surge in visitors from China and Hong Kong.

The number of US tourists to Northeast asia also jumped 13% in 2014, while US tourists to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand fell 3.3%.

"Shift of inbound tourist arrivals from Sing-Ma-Thai to Northeast Asia. Looking at four key travel groups. similar trends of a shift of inbound tourism from Sing-Ma-Thai to NE Asian destinations are apparent in 2014 and 1Q15. Specifically for Singapore, tourist arrivals in Jan-Apr 2015 are down 5.4% with Indonesia, Australia and Europe showing the biggest declines," said Macquarie.