Singapore welcomed a total of 15.1 million visitors in 2014, 3.1 percent lower than the previous year, mainly due to the drop in the number of Chinese tourists, preliminary estimates from the Singapore Tourism Board showed on Wednesday.

While China remains the second largest tourist market following Indonesia last year, the number of Chinese visitors saw a sharp decline of 24 percent from a year earlier, which is the only nation that has seen a double-digit decrease.

In explaining the reasons, STB said it was likely due to factors such as the implementation of China's Tourism Law, the regional political uncertainty as well as the aviation incidents in the region.

Despite the drop in figures, the per capita expenditure of each Chinese visitor increased significantly by 29 percent to 1,600 Singapore dollars.

The top five visitor markets were Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Australia and India.