Singapore sees fewer visitors

Singapore sees fewer visitors

SINGAPORE (AFP): Tourist arrivals in Singapore declined in
March due to a stronger local currency, stiff competition from
other Asian destinations and the Kobe earthquake in Japan, the
Singapore Tourist Promotion Board said.

The board said on Friday that 619,760 tourists visited
Singapore in March, a year-on-year decline of 1.2 percent, The
Straits Times reported Saturday.

The appreciation of the Singapore dollar, which has risen
about 15 percent against the U.S. dollar since January 1994, and
stiff competition from concessional air fares and tour packages
offered by other Asian destinations were cited as reasons for the
fall.

Arrivals from Japan, a major tourism market for the city-
state, fell 5.2 percent from a year earlier to 111,045 in March,
in line with a slowdown in outbound Japanese travel following the
Kobe earthquake.