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