TravTalk India Online Magazine
Singapore Tourism Board (STB), together with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Changi Airport Group (CAG), conducted a refresher webinar for the travel trade in India and Sri Lanka. This session was in time with the announcement that the Vaccination Travel Lane (VTL) will open to all cities in India with effect from March 16 this year.
Hazel Jain
Travelling between Singapore and India and Sri Lanka has now been made easier. The countries have streamlined their entry and COVID-19 testing protocols while bearing in mind the safety of travellers and locals. The VTL allows fully vaccinated travellers from both countries to visit Singapore quarantine-free. The on-arrival Covid-19 testing requirements in Singapore have been revised and travellers are now required to only take a Supervised ART* within 24 hours after arrival at one of the testing centres. They could carry on to enjoy their stay in the city once they have received negative test results. When returning to India or Sri Lanka, pre-departure test and quarantine are no longer required.
Connecting with the trade
As part of STB’s trade engagement strategy to grow and deepen their connection, a joint webinar by STB, SIA and CAG was conducted to update the trade fraternity on the revised guidelines of the VTL. More than 1,100 agents from India and Sri Lanka attended the session on 28th February 2022. The post-webinar survey indicated that 89 per cent of the participants rated the session to be very helpful, and 95 per cent of the participants found the process of travelling to Singapore via VTL easy to understand.
During the webinar, SIA announced the launch of two new weekly flights (A350) between Colombo and Singapore on 29th March 2022. Customers in India can now experience its new regional Business Class and Economy Class cabin products on Airbus A350 and Boeing 787-10 aircraft. Moreover, the iconic SIA Airbus A380 returns to Mumbai on 14th March 2022. To celebrate this, SIA launched a discount of up to 40 per cent for its A380 flights from Mumbai to Singapore.
CAG shared that they are ready to handle an increase in traffic via the two operational terminals today – Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. Changi Airport offers a wide range of services, including Meet and Greet service upon disembarkation, and a clinic that accepts the booking of Supervised ART*, should customers wish to do so upon arrival. CAG also shared about Jewel Changi Airport, a one-of-its-kind lifestyle destination with more than 280 dining and shopping outlets. With Jewel, CAG is proud to offer a snippet of what it means to have “the World meet Singapore” upon touchdown.
The start of March 2022 saw the launch of the STB’s first series of nine familiarisation trips for MICE Corporates, travel agents and influencers, which validated the seamless VTL experience. Sunil Sharma – Head of Travel & MICE of Ancalima Lifesciences Limited, who was on one of the familiarisation trips, said, “The implementation of the VTL indicates the seriousness in view of the pandemic, and the willingness to create every possible opportunity to facilitate travel in a safe way is unique. The application of Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP) on Safe Travel Office website is simple, user friendly and supported by detailed information. Furthermore, each step is self-explanatory. Overall, my VTL experience was very smooth and fast.”
Extension of VTL points to all cities in India
On 4th March 2022, Singapore announced the extension of VTL to all cities in India from 16th March 2022. The VTL was earlier applicable only to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai since 29th November 2021.
SIA Group announced that they will be progressively converting all their flights from India to Singapore to VTL. This includes flights from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Kolkata, and Scoot’s flights from Amritsar, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Tiruchirappalli and Visakhapatnam. With this new development, more travellers from India, who are fully vaccinated, will be able to use the VTL for quarantine-free travel to Singapore.
SingapoReimagine – New tourism offerings
Travellers visiting Singapore can look forward to interesting offerings such as SkyHelix Sentosa, Museum of Ice Cream, National Orchid Garden and more.
On the cruise front, Royal Caribbean has also announced Spectrum of the Seas will sail from Singapore beginning 11th April 2022. The ship will offer three and four-night ‘cruise to nowhere’ programmes.
GB Srithar, Regional Director, IMESA (India, Middle East & South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board, said, “The extension of VTL to Singapore from all Indian cities provides the much needed impetus to travel between the countries for all traveller types, whether for leisure, business or cruise. This is part of Singapore’s calibrated and progressive approach in re-opening our borders. Over the past year and a half, we had continued engaging the consumers and travel trade through a myriad of content and virtual experiences. We had recently launched a “Reserve in Singapore” consumer engagement activation under our SingapoReimagine campaign and are glad that more travellers from India may now start to plan their trips and reserve their experiences in Singapore. We look forward to sharing Singapore’s new, reimagined tourism offerings and experiences with our Indian visitors.”
Wong Renjie, soon to assume the role of Area Director, Mumbai, Singapore Tourism Board, assured travel agents that visiting Singapore is more streamlined and straight-forward. “We are excited to welcome back visitors from both India and Sri Lanka through the VTLs. We have a lot of exciting work cut out for us. I look forward to working with our trade partner-friends in India and Sri Lanka and to drive tourism recovery in the coming months,” he said.
