Posts Tagged ‘Singapore’

Hazardous Fire Haze Clouds Outlook for Singapore Tourism

June 25, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-23/hazardous-fire-haze-clouds-outlook-for-singapore-tourism.html

Prashant Changrani and his family were looking forward to a week-long holiday in Singapore that was set to start yesterday. That was until the island state was engulfed in hazardous fire haze wafting across from Sumatra.

  Hazardous Haze Clouds Singapore Tourism Outlook A man attempts to photograph the city skyline from the promenade at Marina Bay as buildings in the central business district stand shrouded in smog in Singapore, on Friday, June 21, 2013. Singapore’s smog hit its worst level, blanketing the city-state in thick, smoky haze as forest fires raged on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the nations’ governments bickered over responsibility. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg

Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, comments on the country’s smog reaching hazardous levels as forest fires rage on Sumatra. He speaks with Zeb Eckert on Bloomberg Television’s “First Up.” (Source: Bloomberg)

 “Health comes before holiday,” businessman Changrani, 41, said in a phone interview from Mumbai after canceling the trip and room at the Orchard Scotts. “My twin girls are just 26 months old and they would never have been able to take this.”

Forest fires raging on the neighboring Indonesian island sent Singapore’s Pollutant Standards Index to a record 401 on June 21, a level deemed hazardous, according to the National Environment Agency. Singapore’s air quality has improved after the haze shifted north into Malaysia. A state of emergency was called in parts of Johor yesterday, and pollution rose to hazardous levels in Port Dickson on Malaysia’s west coast this morning, while areas around Kuala Lumpur were deemed unhealthy.

The haze may prompt more visitors to reconsider trips to Singapore, which was ranked Asia’s most-popular business destination in the first half of 2012 with hotel occupancy rates averaging 86 percent in the past three years.

“It’s a bit early days at the moment, but if it goes on any longer, it must have some adverse impact on tourism numbers,” said Robert McIntosh, Asia Pacific executive director at CBRE Group Inc. (CBG) “Anything that impacts the environment like this, particularly for a place so well-regarded for its clean environment, must have some impact and inevitably it means a fall-off in visitor arrivals.”

Economic Damage

The pollution will hit tourism-related industries in Singapore, which make up as much as 6 percent of the economy, as well as construction, Joey Chew, an economist at Barclays Plc, said in a research note on June 20. A disruption for one week could cost the economy about $1 billion, Barclays economist Wai Ho Leong said in an e-mail on June 19. Dry weather in 1997 fed blazes that caused $4.4 billion in damages, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Singapore was ranked Asia’s most-popular business destination in the first half of 2012, according to a survey of 2,500 people in nine countries by Accor SA. (AC) Conventions, conferences and trade shows rose 46 percent to 2,130 in 2011 from 2010, according to the Singapore Tourism Board.

The haze has prompted daily health warnings in Singapore and forced some tourist attractions to shut.

The Singapore Flyer, which operates the city-state’s ferris wheel, suspended operations last week, while Gardens by the Bay, a newly built botanical park near the Marina Bay financial district, halted some outdoor activities. The four attractions run by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore, including Jurong Bird Park and Singapore Zoo, observed a “a small dip” in visitor numbers, according to an e-mailed statement.

New Situation

“The impact on our business at this point is hard to quantify,” said Bas de Graaff, director of business development at Hilton (HLT) Singapore. “It’s still a very new situation. A lot of our guests come from overseas, so they may not be fully aware yet of the situation, of the duration that’s expected or how serious it is at this time.”

Hilton has been at close to full capacity for most of last week because of the CommunicAsia conference, Asia’s largest communication technology event, said de Graaff.

Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel The Stamford have received queries from clients and guests expressing concern about the haze situation, Lim Ee Jin, director of marketing communications, said in response to Bloomberg News queries.

“In terms of overall business, we see a slower pace in dining reservations,” Lim said. “There have also been a few cancellations of room bookings as a direct result of the haze situation, but it is too early to tell if it will have significant impact on the business.”

Some Cancellations

Pan Pacific Hotels Group Ltd. (PPAC), which owns and manages eight hotels and serviced suites in Singapore under the Pan Pacific and PARKROYAL brands, is seeing some cancellations, said Hans Heijligers, the group’s area vice president.

“The impact has been minimal at this stage,” he said. “We’ll continue to closely monitor the business impact of the haze situation and take appropriate responsive measures.”

With air pollutants reaching record levels in Singapore, some tourists will probably plan to cut short their stays, Sarah Ong and Carey Wong, analysts at OCBC Investment Research said in a note to clients on June 21. The haze will probably weigh on the performance of Singapore hotels through part of the third quarter, according to the note.

“A relative weakness in bookings is likely given that the haze could last at least several weeks,” according to the OCBC note. “The haze could exacerbate the situation with organizations possibly canceling outdoor events.”

Stocks Fall

Genting Singapore Plc (GENS), one of two casino operators in Singapore, fell 2.6 percent to S$1.325 at the close of trading, its lowest in six months. Hotel Properties Ltd. (HPL), the hospitality operator partly owned by Wheelock Properties (Singapore) Ltd., slumped 4.9 percent to S$3.14, its biggest drop in 19 months.

The Singapore agency’s measure of fine particulates that pose the greatest health risks was more than 10 times the healthy level given in World Health Organization guidelines.

The Ascott Ltd., which operates five serviced residences under three different brands of Ascott, Citadines and Somerset, has made available masks to guests, briefed its staff to advise guests on precautionary measures, said Tan Boon Khai, the company’s regional general manager for Singapore and Malaysia.

Ascott’s residences in Singapore are running at almost full occupancy, and there have been no cancellations of apartments so far, he said June 21.

Getting Out

While pollution levels declined in Singapore over the weekend as winds shifted, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak declared a state of emergency in parts of the southern state of Johor yesterday as the Air Pollution Index exceeded 750, according to a statement from the government.

Malaysia called for a meeting of Southeast Asian ministers as early as next week. The meeting was originally scheduled for Aug. 20-21.

Some inhabitants of Singapore, which number 5.3 million with foreigners accounting for about a third, are trying to escape the island state. Skyscanner, a global travel search website saw a 22 percent increase in outbound flight searches last week compared with the same period in the previous week, according to an e-mailed statement from the company.

Airlines are using the haze to sell flights. Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA)’s budget carrier Scoot ran an advertising campaign titled “What The Fog” enticing Singapore residents to “Get Outta Here,” offering flights to Bangkok from S$88 ($69), and to Sydney and the Gold Coast for S$178.

Jetstar Airways, the budget carrier owned by Quantas Airways Ltd. (QAN), offered fares to Bangkok from Singapore starting at S$78 with a campaign saying “You can’t vacuum the haze away and you can’t stay indoors forever.”

Airport Woes

Lower visibility from the haze prompted Singapore’s Changi Airport to increase the time between aircraft takeoffs and landings, the aviation authority said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News’s queries. The island’s secondary airport at Seletar in the northeast said it closed on June 20 because of “prolonged poor visibility.” It resumed services the next day.

The direct and immediate effect will be manifested in the food and beverage and tourism-related industries, said Irvin Seah, a senior economist at DBS Bank in Singapore.

“If the tourism industry is affected there will be a spillover effect on other sectors like retail and hotels,” he said. “A lot depends on how serious the problem gets and how long the haze will last.”

New pollution high as haze chokes Singapore

June 21, 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22998592

Pollution levels reached a new record high for a third day in a row in Singapore, as smoky haze from fires in Indonesia shrouded the city state.

 

The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 401 at 12:00 on Friday (04:00 GMT) – the highest in the country’s history.

 

The haze is also affecting Malaysia, with another 100 schools closed in the south of the country.

 

Indonesia has prepared helicopters and cloud seeding equipment to try to tackle the fires.

 

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong warned on Thursday that the haze could remain in place for weeks.

Analysis

Indonesia is struggling to contain the raging forest fires that are causing the thick smog which is enveloping Singapore, parts of Malaysia and some Indonesian cities.

On Friday, the government despatched helicopters to the worst affected areas, in a bid to create artificial rain. The plan is to seed the clouds once the temperature is a bit cooler to induce rain over the burning forestland.

It is a big challenge. Fire-fighters on the ground have been working around the clock to put out the blazes, but they have spread to peatlands and are proving to be very difficult to extinguish. Officials have complained about a lack of resources and say they desperately need some rain to help.

Indonesia’s weather agency says rainfall is not likely until 29 June. Singapore and Malaysia have both urged Indonesia to do more to solve this crisis. Singapore has offered aircraft to help with the cloud-seeding operation, but there needs to be clouds in the sky for it to work. This time of year is typically the hottest and driest on the island of Sumatra.

 

“We can’t tell how this problem is going to develop because it depends on the burning, it depends on the weather, it depends on the wind,” he said.

 

“It can easily last for several weeks and quite possibly it could last longer until the dry season ends in Sumatra which may be September or October.”

‘Life threatening’

A PSI reading above 300 is defined as “hazardous”, while Singapore government guidelines say a PSI reading of above 400 over 24 hours “may be life threatening to ill and elderly persons”.

 

“Healthy people [may also] experience adverse symptoms that affect normal activity,” the government says.

 

The PSI dropped down to 143 at 17:00 (09:00 GMT), although this is still classed as “unhealthy”.

 

Before this week’s episode, the previous air pollution record was from September 1997 during the 1997-1998 South East Asian Haze, when the PSI peaked at 226.

 

Singapore resident Nicole Wu told the BBC that she had stayed indoors for the past two days.

 

“It’s terrible. In my flat the windows are all closed with the air conditioning on,” she said. “My mother has to wear a mask to go shopping.”

 

“I can’t even see what’s happening outside my house due to the smog. You can’t see birds [or] moving objects,” she added.

 

Philip Koh, a doctor, told AFP news agency that the number of medical consultations he had had in the past week had increased by 20%.

My patients are telling me they are worried about how long this is going to last and how much higher this is going to go,” he said.

In Indonesia’s Riau province, where the fires are concentrated, the chief of the health department Zainal Arifin said there was an “increasing number of asthma, lung, eye and skin problems due to higher CO2 levels”.

“I call for residents to stay at home and reduce outdoor activities,” he said.

Diplomatic strain

Singapore’s National Environment Agency has started providing hourly PSI updates on its website, in addition to the three-hourly updates it previously provided.

Around 300 schools in southern Malaysia have now been closed as a result of the smog. Schools in Singapore are currently closed for the holidays.

A general view of the causeway from Singapore to southern Malaysia is obscured by haze on 21 June 2013 Air traffic controllers have been told to exercise caution given the poor visibility

There are also reports of flight delays in both Singapore’s Changi airport and Riau province in Indonesia.

The fires are caused by illegal slash-and-burn land clearance in Sumatra, to the west of Singapore.

The smog has strained diplomatic relations between Singapore and Indonesia – two countries that usually share good relations, the BBC’s Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta reports.

Mr Lee said Singapore had provided satellite date to Indonesia to help it identify companies involved and said that if any Singapore firms were involved, that would be addressed.

graphic showing peak of pollution

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said it would deploy two helicopters to conduct “water-bombing” operations, as well as planes with cloud seeding equipment.

More than 100 Indonesian fire-fighters are attempting to put out the fires in Sumatra.

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We have been fighting fires 24 hours a day for two weeks”

Ahmad Saerozi Natural resources conservation agency

However, an official in Riau province said they were “overwhelmed and in a state of emergency”.

“We have been fighting fires 24 hours a day for two weeks,” Ahmad Saerozi, the head of the natural resources conservation agency in Riau, told AFP news agency.

He added that the fires were in peat around three or four metres below the ground, making it particularly hard to fight them.

“It is still burning under the surface so we have to stick a hose into the peat to douse the fire,” he said.

“We take one to two hours to clear a hectare, and by then another fire has started elsewhere.”

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said “all the country’s resources” would be mobilised to extinguish the fires.

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