Business travelers are back Shangri-La.

• Position: Business Travel

Shangri-La Asia, Asia's biggest luxury hotel group, said room rates at its Singapore flagship are expected to return to where they were before the SARS out break by early 2004.

Singapore's room rates fell after tourists avoided the city-state following the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome in March, leaving as many as nine in 10 hotel rooms empty.

Shangri-La's rates will rise after discounts expire at the end of the year, general manager Cetin Sekercioglu said.

Shangri-La said it expects the Singapore hotel's occupancy to exceed 80 per cent in the...