Indonesia to ask tourists to wear masks: minister

Indonesia is planning to ask all people arriving from swine flu-affected countries to wear face masks for at least three days, the health minister said Monday.

The presence of the A(H1N1) virus was confirmed in Indonesia only last week and so far four of the eight known cases have been foreigners.

"Visitors from infected countries should wear masks. It's a precautionary measure we're taking to avoid human-to-human transmission of the virus," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told AFP.

"We'll give them the masks when they arrive at the airports and tell them to wear them for three days."

But the minister said the government had no intention of enforcing the precaution, which could do serious damage to the country's stuttering tourism industry.

"There'll be no penalty if people don't wear them. You can't expect people to wear masks when they're swimming," Supari said, adding the masks would be handed out to visitors as soon as possible depending on funding.

She made the announcement after a ministerial meeting to discuss the swine flu outbreak in Indonesia.

Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie chaired the meeting and said funds would be allocated to pay for the masks, Antara news agency reported. Transportation Minister Jusman Sjafii Djamal also attended.

Supari said last week she was particularly worried about Australian tourists who flock to the famous surf beaches of Bali island. More than 300,000 Australian holiday-makers visited the island last year.

Australia is the Asia-Pacific country worst-hit by swine flu with almost 4,000 cases.

Indonesia has been the country hit hardest by avian influenza with 115 deaths since 2005.s

Swine flu dents travel arrivals in Singapore

Singapore said Friday that visitor arrivals fell 13 percent year on year in May, as the global swine flu outbreak compounded the impact of the economic downturn on travel demand.

The city-state welcomed 730,000 travellers in May, down from 834,000 in the same month last year, the Singapore Tourism Board said in a statement.

"Singapore's tourism sector saw sharper declines in visitor arrivals in May 2009 from markets such as China and Japan which can be attributed in part to the global outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1-2009)," it said.

Arrivals from China fell 40 percent to 52,000 and 30 percent to 30,000 from Japan.

Hotel room revenue fell 37.7 percent to 112 million Singapore dollars (77.24 million US) and average occupancy rates dipped 12.2 percentage points to 69 percent.

Singapore drew 10.1 million visitors in 2008, falling short of its target of 10.8 million as travel slowed noticeably in the second-half in the face of the global downturn.

Tourism is a major revenue earner for Singapore, which is facing its worst economic crisis in more than 40 years this year because of the worldwide downturn.