Intead Of Casinos This is the reason Why Indians are heading Towards Singapore

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When Indian architect Rahul Maini and his parents embarked on their first trip abroad in May, Singapore was their destination of choice. But the trio wasn't going for the hawker food or even the city-state's casinos -- they were there to get on a ship.

 The equatorial island has become a flourishing entry point for Indian cruise-ship passengers, bolstering sales for operators, including Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Genting Hong Kong Ltd. 

About 100,000 Indians sailed from Singapore last year, 29 percent more than in 2015, making India the biggest market for cruises departing from the Southeast Asian nation, according to the Singapore Tourism Board. "We chose to go on a cruise because we could visit three countries in one short trip," said Maini, 26, whose four-day cruise on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas took in the Malaysian city of Penang and the Thai island of Phuket. 

The family spent about $7,700, which Maini said was "expensive, but worth it." The expenditure is part of the 777.3 billion rupees ($12 billion) that Euromonitor International predicts middle-class Indians will shell out on overseas leisure travel this year.

 The market is expanding about 10 percent annually and will eclipse 1 trillion rupees by 2020, the research company says. While the Middle East and France are the most-popular overseas destinations for Indians, Singapore is expected to register a 59 percent jump in arrivals from the world's second most-populous country from 2015 to 2020, according to Euromonitor.

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