Singapore tourism may be worse hit than expected by coronavirus

Just last month, Singapore’s tourism chief forecast that tourist arrivals and spending could drop by 25% to 30% this year because of the outbreak, making it worse than the 2003 SARS pandemic.

SINGAPORE is bracing for a harder hit to tourism than initially expected from the coronavirus as the outbreak spreads to more than 100 countries, impacting global travel plans, Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran said.

"Now it’s really the fact that there’s a global spread of this virus and therefore we will have to reevaluate certainly the numbers, ” Iswaran said in an interview Wednesday.