Singapore hotel occupancy, room rates falling

Singapore hotel occupancy, room rates falling

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Singapore hotels are suffering from Southeast Asia's financial crisis and the dense smog which blanketed parts of the region at the end of 1997, the Singapore Tourist Board (STB) said yesterday.

The STB said in a statement occupancy rates of Singapore hotels fell to 79.5 percent last year, from 82.2 percent in 1996. Over the last decade occupancy rates have varied from a low of 76.8 percent in 1991 to a peak of 86.6 percent in 1994.

STB chief executive Yeo Khee Leng told a news conference the overall figure for 1997 masked a decline in the fortunes of hotels at the end of last year.

In December, standard occupancy rates fell to 69.9 percent, down 11.4 percent from December 1996, STB figures showed. And room rates came under pressure as a result.

While daily room rates for hotels of international standing averaged Singapore $150.8 in 1997, up slightly from S$150.2 in 1996, the standard rate slipped to only S$146.5 in December.

Tourist arrivals in Singapore could drop by 8-to-10 percent this year, the industry's worst decline in 15 years, due to a slowdown in regional economies and other problems, officials said Tuesday.

In 1997, tourist arrivals fell 1.3 percent to 7.2 million due to the combined effects of the regional currency crisis and massive pollution from forest fires in Indonesia.

"We can expect 1998 to be a tough one because of the regional economic crunch," Singapore Tourism Board (STB) chief executive Yeo Khee Leng said at a news briefing.

The travel-industry slump is expected to derail Singapore's goal of attracting 10 million tourists by 2000. Strategically placed Singapore has only three million people, but is a gateway to Southeast Asia.