TWO weeks ago, tourism chief Lim Neo Chian said that he was "very concerned" about slowing visitor arrivals.

And figures released yesterday by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) are likely to do little to soothe his concerns.

For the first time in 51 months, the number of visitors to Singapore declined year on year. Last month's arrivals were down 4.1 per cent from a year earlier - a sharp dip that followed a slow 0.8 per cent growth in April and May this year.

On the whole, arrivals grew 2.9 per cent as tourism receipts declined 0.2 per cent in the first six months of this year, compared with January-June 2007.

A total of 5.1 million people visited the island in the first half of this year, spending an estimated $6.5 billion during their stay.

Besides a "weakening economic climate", Mr Lim, STB's chief executive and deputy chairman, noted factors such as higher air travel costs, rising fuel prices and exchange rates.

"The recent economic slowdown and rising costs have brought about a general air of uncertainty, which has impacted consumer sentiment and discretionary spending in many tourism destinations, including Singapore," he
said.

"As a result, Singapore's in-bound travel - particularly in the last quarter - has been affected. This slowdown in the tourism sector's growth may potentially continue into the next few months."

STB will monitor the situation closely and, where necessary, adjust its strategies and review targets.

Delving deeper into the data, visitor days from January to June 2008 are estimated to have hit 20.4 million - an increase of 13.5 per cent. The average length of stay was 3.89 days - 8.7 per cent higher than the same period last year.

Indonesia, China, India, Australia and Malaysia were Singapore's top five visitor-generating markets  in that order, accounting for 51 per cent of all arrivals.

Among the top 15 markets, Vietnam, Australia, China, India, South Korea and Germany showed the highest growth. STB attributed the strong performance of these markets to their resilience in the face of the current slowdown, and in the case of Australia, a strong exchange rate.

The hotel sector continued to perform strongly, posting record figures for room revenue and average room rate. In the first half of this year, hotels collected $1.1 billion in room revenue, a jump of 22.2 per cent.

The average room rate was estimated at $248 a night, an increase of 29.6 per cent. But the occupancy level dropped 3.4 percentage points to an estimated 83 per cent.

Mr Lim said that in the short term, STB will focus its marketing efforts on China and India, and emerging markets such as Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

In the mid to long term, STB expects the tourism sector to continue to grow.

Mr Lim cited big-scale events such as the inaugural Formula One night race in September and the opening of the two integrated resorts as key to giving tourists "even more reasons" to visit Singapore.

This article was first published in The Business Times on July 26, 2008.