TravTalk India Online Magazine
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) recently held its CruiseWorld India 2021 event to share destination updates, rally the trade and share expert insights on how the travel trade can grow and recover their business when travel and cruising resumes.
The event themed, ‘Charting our Pathway to Cruise Recovery’was aimed to rally Indian cruise travel trade during the COVID-19 pandemic and re-connect with them to share destination updates, as well as insights on how they can recover and grow their business when travel resumes.
During the CruiseWorld India 2021 forum, STB shared a destination update, focusing on how Singapore has managed the COVID-19 situation so far. STB also highlighted Singapore’s success in safely restarting cruises – More than 120,000 Singapore residents have set sail on seacations on approximately 90 sailings, with no reported COVID-19 cases on board. STB has launched a comprehensive CruiseSafe certification programme, which requires cruise ships to adhere to a set of mandatory health and safety protocols.
GB Srithar, Regional Director of India, Middle East and South Asia at STB moderated a panel discussion titled “Power up for a safe return to cruising in Singapore”. The panel featured well-known industry leaders such as Naresh Rawal, Vice-President – Sales and Marketing, Genting Cruise Lines, as well as Varun Chadha, Chief Executive Officer, TIRUN Travel Marketing (representing Royal Caribbean International) and two travel agents specialising in cruise – Pradeep Saboo, Managing Director, Guideline Travels and Sanjay Kothari, Founder and Managing Director, Just Holidays.
At the session, Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India), also shared about how STB’s Cruise Development Fund was pivotal in helping to develop more attractive and value-added cruising packages for Indian consumers. Thomas Cook is one of the early CDF adopters.
Genting and RCI shared that their work resuming operations in Singapore has been useful in sizing up and sharpening the ‘seacation experiences for consumers, and they expressed optimism that Indian consumers would be keen on international cruise when the borders reopen.
Guideline and Just Holidays shared that there remains strong demand from segments such as MICE corporates, as evinced by how some of them have already started taking holidays in other destinations which have opened to India, such as the Maldives. They noted that Singapore remains a choice destination, given its proximity, convenience and strong confidence in the safety measures given by Singapore.
CruiseWorld India 2021 wrapped up on an optimistic note, with all speakers acknowledging the difficulties that the travel trade fraternity had endured during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also noting the Indian travel trade community’s collective resilience in weathering crises, and this too shall be overcome.
Feedback and Response
Sharing the response received from the travel trade on CruiseWorld India 2021, Srithar said that STB continues to actively engage Indian travel trade by organsing outreach programs and participating in industry led events. “In January, STB India concluded its first virtual roadshows for 2021, themed ‘Charting Our Pathways to Tourism Recovery’. We have since continued with these trade engagements to connect with our partner-friends and invite them to jointly prepare for travel restart when the time is right. We are keen to work with the trade to discuss how best we can support them and be prepared to receive Indian travellers when international travel resumes. With
CruiseWorld India, we called for industry feedback and broght together industry leaders to offer insights on how to gear up for when cruising returns. We’re pleased to have received good feedback for the show,” he said.
The event was timely as Singapore continues to make steady progress with the safe resumption of cruises since November 2020 for Singapore residents. Singapore commenced pilot trial of “cruise to nowhere” itineraries with two operators – Genting Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International.
“The industry stakeholders communicated a sense of optimism on customers opting for cruising as a mode of holiday and vacation when travel restarts. Agents shared that customers will prioritize factors such as health, hygiene, and safety of the cruising experience, and most travellers will prefer a mix of land-cruise holidays that lasts anywhere between 3 to 14 days,” Srithar further said.
Future of Cruising for Indian visitors from Singapore
Sharing the feedback the STB has received, Srithar said that there is strong interest in cruising from Singapore among Indian travelers and they will cruise again once international travel resumes. “They will be concerned with hygiene and safety measures on board the cruiseships. Singapore is well-poised to receive them, with cruiselines adhering to our mandatory CruiseSafe certification program.In line with the safe and gradual resumption of economic activities in Singapore, a phased approach has been adopted for cruise sailings, with safe management measures in place. Currently, there are no ports of call, with round-trip itineraries and sailing at a reduced capacity of 50 percent or less, further minimising risk of transmission,” he informed.
Talking about the target audience for them, Srithar said families with kids is a significant target cruise segment for them and they expect this trend to continue.
A poll conducted at CruiseWorld India 2021 showed that ‘Families with Kids’ segment ranked as the top leisure segment most likely to consider cruises at 50%. We also foresee the ‘Early and Established Careers’ emerging as a key segment from India, who would likely to travel to Singapore and consider cruising as a holiday option.
Supporting travel trade
On STB’s efforts to support the Indian travel trade, Srithar said that STB India, which has two offices in Mumbai and Delhi and marketing representatives in Chennai and Bengaluru, has constantly been engaging with its partners since the start of COVID-19 to show its solidarity, update them on the situation in Singapore and discuss how to make travel better, safer, and seamless as they plan for travel restart.
He said, “STB’s key initiative in supporting the cruise industry is the Cruise Development Fund (CDF), which supports cruise industry players such as cruise lines, travel agents, charterers, and trainers in activities which build strong consumer demand for Singapore cruises. We are heartened that several of our cruise partners in India see the CDF as a tool to enhance their value proposition to consumers. Some of the agents onboarded for this grant include Thomas Cook, Guideline Travels, FCM and Antilog Vacations.We see our partnerships and relationships with our stakeholders and partner-friends as critical to our success in the market. We will continue to engage our cruise partner-friends to discuss how STB can best support them on the road to recovery.”
India was a major source market for Singapore – in leisure, MICE and cruise tourism. In 2018 and 2019, India was the top cruise travel source market for Singapore, and the third largest tourism market.
Sharing his outlook for future, Srithar said they understand and do not expect a quick rebound in visitor arrivals to Singapore, as it will take a while for positive global travel sentiments to return. But he feels, STB is prepared for the recovery, “We are prepared for recovery to be a slow, deliberate and cautious process. And so far, while Singapore has made good progress in resuming tourism and business events for domestic audiences, we are some time away from larger leisure movements, including cruise holidays for overseas visitors.There’s a general sense of cautious optimism to restart travel in 2021. Travel stakeholders are realistic that travellers will be concerned about safety, health check protocols and end-to-end travel arrangements. Our numbers will not climb back to pre-Covid levels
anytime soon.”
Road to recovery
As international travel gradually resumes, Singapore has been named one of the top post-pandemic destinations that travellers in Asia would be likely to visit, according to a recent Blackbox Research study. Singapore aims to build on its position as a safe and trusted hub to pioneer leading standards in health, safety, and service. To do so, STB has established the Safe Business Events framework last year for business and MICE events. Larger B2B events in the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) industry are allowed in Singapore with up to 750 attendees with effect from 24 Apr 2021. This is an increase from the current limit of 250 attendees and is in line with the safe and progressive resumption of economic activities in Singapore.
