Friday June 26, 4:16 PM
Swine flu dents travel arrivals in Singapore
Singapore said that visitor arrivals fell 13 percent year on year in May, as the global swine flu outbreak compounded the impact of the economic downturn on travel demand.
The city-state welcomed 730,000 travellers in May, down from 834,000 in the same month last year, the Singapore Tourism Board said in a statement.
"Singapore's tourism sector saw sharper declines in visitor arrivals in May 2009 from markets such as China and Japan which can be attributed in part to the global outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1-2009)," it said.
Arrivals from China fell 40 percent to 52,000 and 30 percent to 30,000 from Japan.
Hotel room revenue fell 37.7 percent to 112 million Singapore dollars (77.24 million US) and average occupancy rates dipped 12.2 percentage points to 69 percent.
Singapore drew 10.1 million visitors in 2008, falling short of its target of 10.8 million as travel slowed noticeably in the second-half in the face of the global downturn.
Tourism is a major revenue earner for Singapore, which is facing its worst economic crisis in more than 40 years this year because of the worldwide downturn.
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