Bangkok  - Tourist arrivals to the Asia-Pacific region fell 2.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2008, with Thailand leading the plunge with a 28 per cent decline, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) revealed Wednesday.

PATA compiles travel statistics for 37 destinations in Asia, the Pacific islands and the Americas.

The association noted a "dramatic downturn" in arrivals last quarter of 2008 in Japan, Thailand and Sri Lanka, reflecting "both the worsening global economic climate and regional/national issues."

New Delhi  - Tobacco will kill 6 million people annually by next year and cause an estimated 500 billion-dollar loss to the global economy, according to health conference in India Tuesday.

The 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Mumbai revealed that China and India were the world's biggest tobacco users at 325 million and 241 million tobacco users respectively.

Manila  - The global financial crisis has slashed the value of financial assets worldwide by a massive 50 trillion dollars last year, a study by the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday.

Developing Asia suffered more losses than other emerging market regions at 9.6 trillion dollars, according to the study, Global Financial Turmoil and Emerging Market Economies: Major Contagion and a Shocking Loss of Wealth?

Singapore - The global economic downturn is putting the brakes on Singapore's tourism industry as visitor arrivals fell 12.9 per cent year-on-year in January to
771,000, the Singapore Tourism Board said Friday.

The average occupancy rate in Singapore's hotels was estimated at 67 per cent last month, a fall of 17.7 percentage points from January 2008.

Room revenue came to 124 million Singapore dollars (80 million US dollars), down 29.9 per cent from January last year.

Kuala Lumpur  - International demand for air freight recorded a dip of 23.6 per cent in January because of a lull in world trade amid the global economic downturn, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said Friday.

The drop in freight ton kilometres was seen from the same month a year ago as total cargo loads registered a mere 56.6 per cent of capacity, a dip of more than 7 percentage points, the association said in a statement.

Asia-Pacific airlines also suffered a drop in passenger volume in January of 7.8 per cent from last year to stand at 11.4 million passengers.

Kuala Lumpur  - Fifty-seven per cent of men and 64 per cent of women in the Asia-Pacific region responding to a survey reported dissatisfaction with their sex lives, news reports said Wednesday.

People in only three of the 13 countries where the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc conducted its survey reported satisfaction rates of more than 50 per cent.

India ranked the highest with 73 per cent of respondents to the Asia-Pacific Sexual Health and Overall Wellness survey saying they were satisfied. It was followed by the Philippines at 52 per cent, Taiwan at 51 per cent and New Zealand at 40 per cent.

Japan ranked the lowest at 10 per cent.