S'pore's visitor arrivals down more than 70%

S'pore's visitor arrivals down more than 70%

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Singapore's visitor arrivals were down more than 70 percent in the first 19 days of May from a year ago due to the health scare sparked by the SARS outbreak, tourism authorities said Tuesday.

Arrivals for the period fell 73 percent or 100,700 with the city-state's top 12 sources of visitors all posting sharp declines of 50-94 percent, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said.

"Travel advisories and alerts by various countries, as well as the cancellation of events contributed to the decline in visitor arrivals over the period of 1-19 May," the STB said in a statement.

Measured on a percentage basis, China, Japan, Hong Kong, the United States and Australia recorded the biggest declines of more than 76 percent, it said.

The latest STB figures reflect the severity of the SARS- induced business slump inflicted on Singapore's tourism and transportation-related sectors.

Singapore is among the worst hit from the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) with 31 dead -- the fourth highest death toll globally -- out of 206 cases.

The STB said recently visitor arrivals this year are expected to drop between 30 to 40 percent this year from 2002 due to the SARS epidemic.

The tourism and transport-related sectors account for about 8.2 percent of Singapore's gross domestic product and 12 percent of total employment.