Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    SINGAPORE, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Visitor arrivals to Singapore dropped 8.1 percent to 843,000 in October from a year ago due to the global economic slowdown, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Wednesday.

    October's visitor days were estimated to reach 3.3 million, a growth of 1.7 percent as compared with the same month last year, the STB said in a statement.

    Indonesia (157,000), China (76,000), Australia (76,000), India (67,000) and Malaysia (54,000) were Singapore's top five visitor-generating markets. These markets accounted for 51 percent of total visitor arrivals for the month.

    Hotels in Singapore were estimated to record 178 million Singapore dollars (about 117 million U.S. dollars) in room revenue in October, down 0.3 percent over the same month last year.

    This month's average room rate was estimated at 241 Singapore dollars, representing an increase of 8.4 percent from a year earlier.

    The average occupancy rate for hotels was estimated to reach 82percent, posting a 6.8-percentage-point decrease.

    Singapore has seen decline in visitor arrivals on-year from June. The STB has said the tourism sector is likely to fall short of this year's target of 10.8 million visitors.