Singapore goes on tourism drive in RI despite SARS

Singapore goes on tourism drive in RI despite SARS

Singapore has launched a campaign in Indonesia aimed at luring visitors to its spas and other health care facilities, the tourism board said Thursday, just days after the city-state reported its first SARS case in four months.

Officials arrived on Tuesday in Pekanbaru on Sumatra island to promote the island as a destination for patients seeking medical treatment or tourists to relax at its spas and hotels, the Singapore Tourism Board said in a statement.

The delegation's arrival in Indonesia coincided with Singapore's announcement Tuesday that it had confirmed the world's first case of severe acute respiratory syndrome since the World Health Organization said the disease was "stopped dead in its tracks" in June.

Singapore has been struggling to revive its vital tourism industry since the previous SARS outbreak, which killed 33 people in the city-state and crippled the economy. Visitor arrivals plunged over 70 percent and hotel occupancy rates dipped to around 25 percent.

The tourism board said it would go ahead with its seminars in Indonesia.

"The recent SARS case has not altered plans for the roadshow as the World Health Organization has said it has no plans to issue a travel advisory against Singapore," the tourism board said.

Indonesians account for around half of the 150,000 visitors who seek medical treatment in Singapore every year, it said.

The tourism board will end its campaign in the capital of Jakarta Oct. 19. -- AP