Singapore shores beckon Calcuttans.

With people from the city streaming to the island state like never before, Calcutta this year can achieve a tourist traffic growth rate as high as 40 per cent, against 28 per cent last year.

Around 21,000 tourists from the city visited Singapore in 2005. ?Going by the tourist traffic growth rate of 70 per cent in January and 50 per cent in February, the tourist flow for the entire year is likely to grow by 30 to 40 per cent,? said Kenneth Lim, area director for northern and eastern operations, Singapore Tourism Board.

He is in town for a networking and business mapping session with the travel fraternity.

Calcutta, however, is way behind other metros in sending tourists to Singapore.

?Of the Indian tourists in Singapore, Mumbai has the largest share at 15 per cent, followed by Chennai at 14 per cent. The tourist shares of New Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta are 11 per cent, 7 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively,? Lim pointed out.

With around 5.8 lakh people flying to Singapore from India last year, the country ranks fifth ? after Indonesia, China, Australia and Japan ? in tourist presence in the city state.

While Indian footfall in Singapore has grown by 139 per cent in the past eight years, the current growth pace (24 per cent last year) could take India among the top three.

MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition) travellers and those from the education sector comprise the majority of Indian tourists.

?With institutes like SP Jain setting up a campus and IIM-B and XLRI planning to set up base in Singapore, the tourist traffic from India is set to get a further boost. We also have tie-ups with Ivy League institutes like MIT and Wharton,? said Lim.

The tourism board is promoting a package with Singapore Airlines, to last till April 2006, for a three-night-four- day stay at Rs 12,000, with value-adds worth Rs 12,799.