Singapore visitors down 20%

Singapore visitors down 20%

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Tourist arrivals in Singapore in the
first quarter of 1998 fell by nearly 20 percent to 1.52 million
over the year-earlier period.

Singapore's Straits Times newspaper reported yesterday that
the Singapore Tourist Board (STB) said visitor arrivals in March
fell by 21 percent over the same month last year, but increased
compared with February.

The STB counted 519,585 visitor arrivals in March, up slightly
from February arrivals of 497,620.

Japan was Singapore's largest source of visitors with 80,605
March arrivals, but that figure was down 30.5 percent from March
arrivals last year due to Japan's recent economic woes.

As expected, visitors from Indonesia and Thailand dropped
nearly 30 percent to 63,405 and 15,050, respectively, while
Malaysian visitors fell around 20 percent to 44,764.