Despite a spike during the Singapore Grand Prix, visitor arrivals to Singapore fell in September.

Last month, Singapore recorded 739,000 visitors arrivals - a dip of 4.1 per cent compared to September 2007.

"The decline in visitor arrivals in the recent months reflects the challenging global economic environment and outlook for the tourism sector, which may continue into 2009," said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in a media release.

"With the current global economic climate, there is now a general air of uncertainty which has impacted consumer sentiments and discretionary spending," it added.

On the bright side, visitors are spending more time in Singapore - visitor days were estimated at 3.2 million days, an increase of 6.2 per cent in comparison with September last year.

Visitor arrivals saw a surge from September 25 to 30, "attributed largely to the occurrence of the 2008 FORMULA 1™ SingTel Singapore Grand Prix and pre-Hari Raya traffic", said STB.

From September 25 to 27, the growth in visitor arrivals peaked at 30.3 per cent, and continued its positive trend with an 11.7 per cent increase from September 28 to 30, in comparison to the same periods in September 2007.

In contrast, visitor arrivals from September 1 to 24 recorded an average decline of 10 per cent, against the same period in September 2007.

Photo courtesy of Singapore Tourism Board