After flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, travel agencies in Singapore have been getting fewer bookings from Chinese tourists.

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Of the 239 people on board the Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, which disappeared on March 8, 153 were from China.

Chinese nationals are angry over the Malaysian government's handling of the MH370 incident.

Many Chinese have been accusing the Malaysian government of hiding information as they kept receiving contradictory statements.

This culminated in a street protest that was held at the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing on March 16.

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And current bookings for travel packages to Malaysia and neighbouring countries are down by as much as 50 percent at some travel agencies, according to the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (Natas), which represents more than 300 firms.

Singapore is usually treated as a stopover destination in these packages.

But it is not just this region that has been affected. Travel inquiries and bookings as a whole have fallen in China.

Chinese dollars badly needed in Singapore

China has consistently been Singapore's second-largest visitor market.

There were 1.24 million Chinese visitors to Singapore in the first half of last year, a 27 percent increase over the same period in 2012.

They also have the dubious honour of being top spenders who helped boost Singapore's economy by spending $1.52 billion in that period, beating Indonesians to first place.

To not lose this lucrative segment, the Singapore Tourism Board's partners in China are marketing alternative packages that exclude Malaysia and focus on Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand instead to continue to attract visitors.

The industry remains optimistic as the number of Chinese tourists is expected to recover by the July school holidays, which is a peak period for Chinese travellers..

Some Singaporeans, however, have been passively happy about this online.

Top photo from here

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