TOURISM arrivals fell again in May, the 12th consecutive month they have done so.
Worse, the spectre of Influenza A (H1N1) has cast a long shadow over an industry that is already reeling from the effects of the global economic downturn, and things look set to get a lot worse before they get better.
Last month, 730,000 tourists visited Singapore, a 13 per cent drop over the same month last year.
The H1N1 factor played a major part in crimping arrivals: Tourists from East Asian countries like China, Korea and Japan, which are among Singapore's key markets, stayed away in droves.
People from these countries are more careful than most about avoiding the new flu bug, having lived through the Sars outbreak in 2003.
Visitors from Japan dropped 30 per cent year-on-year, and the plunge for those from China and Korea was even greater, at 40 per cent.
In its monthly release, the Singapore Tourism Board said: "The sharper declines in visitor arrivals in May 2009 from markets such as China and Japan can be attributed in part to the global outbreak of Influenza A."
The effects of H1N1 are not just being felt in the tourism industry.
For instance, at the recently concluded Infocomm Media Business Exchange - billed as Asia's largest technology trade show - Japanese telco giant NTT DoCo- Mo did not turn up despite having paid for its booth.
A company representative told The Straits Times that it was "a last-minute decision".
She said: "At that time, (the H1N1 flu) was very serious in Japan. In order not to put people at risk, the company decided not to allow its staff to travel."
Tourism industry players warned that the full impact of H1N1 on the trade has not been seen yet.
They noted that by the end of May, Singapore had only five confirmed cases of the disease. All were imported.
This was not enough for other countries to place the Republic on their lists of destinations to avoid.
But now, with the virus spreading to the community, and numbers likely to rise further, more people are expected to avoid Singapore.
So far, no country appears to have placed Singapore on its list of destinations to avoid.
But already, firms like Golden Travel and CTC Holidays say they have seen inbound business drop by 50 per cent to 70 per cent.
Golden Travel's chairman Lin Deng Li gave this stark example: The number of Chinese students coming here during the peak July-August period stands at 400 to 500. She said that in previous years, she had as many as 10,000 students.
These students normally visit Singapore as part of immersion programmes organised by their schools to learn English, and to interact with their counterparts here.
Contacted yesterday, the Singapore Tourism Board would only say it "has been closely monitoring" the pandemic globally and how Singapore's key markets are responding to it.
Its spokesman Muhammad Rostam Umar said: "Singapore's borders remain open and we continue to welcome visitors. Life in Singapore continues as usual."
The continuing slump in the tourism industry has hit the hospitality sector hardest.
Average room occupancy fell 12.2 percentage points year-on-year to hit 69 per cent, while average room rates dropped to $184, a fall of 25.4 per cent year-on-year.
Gazetted hotel room revenue was estimated at $112 million, a decline of 37.7 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The chairman of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (Natas), Mr Robert Khoo, warned that things are so bad that "if this carries on, the travel industry may have no choice but to start retrenching people".
