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.