STB, SIA honour Indian M!CE agents

Singapore Tourism Board, in association with Singapore Airlines, honoured the Indian partners from North and East India contributing impressive numbers to Singapore’s M!CE segment, at a recent event in New Delhi. Kean Bon, Area Director – India, South Asia & Africa, STB, calls India as one of their top markets for FTAs, especially in the M!CE segment.

Surbhi Sharma

Singapore Tourism Board (STB), in association with Singapore Airlines (SIA), organised a ‘M!CE Industry Appreciation Night’ in New Delhi recently. Several influential personalities, from the M!CE trade, particularly from North and East India, attended the event. Best performers from the North and East India, contributing good numbers to tourism in Singapore from M!CE perspective were felicitated on the occasion. Talking about the objectives of the event, Kean Bon, Area Director – India, South Asia & Africa, Singapore Tourism Board, said, “This is the M!CE industry trade appreciation night where we have gathered to celebrate and honour everybody’s efforts and contributions to Singapore’s M!CE business. India is one of our top markets for foreign tourist arrivals and M!CE is an important segment. We deeply appreciate the support of our M!CE partners. This evening is one of our ways to show our support, together with our partners Singapore Airlines. We hope that everyone will enjoy the evening and continue to support Singapore and work closely with us this year.”

Kanneganti Sameer, Manager – Northern & Eastern India, Singapore Airlines, said that the aim is to show our gratitude to all the M!CE partners that we have in the region. He revealed that a lot of developments are happening on Singapore Airline’s front and that the airline is hopeful to provide their partners with more opportunities to sell M!CE, not only to Singapore but to the rest of the Asia Pacific region.

Responding to a question on SIA’s plans of getting more M!CE business from India, Sameer said, “From India specifically, we constantly try to increase our connectivity to the rest of the greater market. We operate to eight different cities from Singapore Airlines’ perspective and plan to add five more cities. So, in total, the Singapore Airlines will operate to 13 cities across India. We offer unparalleled connectivity to different parts of the Indian market helping us to meet the requirements of a lot of our corporate partners.”

Shedding light on SIA’s plans to expand connectivity and upgrade its product on the India network, Sameer said, “It is something that we constantly review. We are constantly looking how we can expand our network within India. We looked at new cities, new areas where we can tap market potential and at the same time we need to see where we can increase capacity in existing markets. Recently, we launched a second Hyderabad flight.”

Praising the M!CE travel partners from India for their support, Sameer thanked them. “We are looking forward to working together a lot closer in the coming financial year and we hope to find new opportunities, new market segments to tap into,” he said.

Gajesh Girdhar, National Coordinator, Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA), said, “Singapore is the perfect destination. During the convention, we explored a lot of attractions, a lot of M!CE venues, which the members were not aware of. It has almost everything to offer.”

Shining stars

M!CE travel supporter award has been given to the following:

• MERCURY I Ebixcash
• Travelicious
• FCM Meetings & Events
• Globe India
• Wizard Events
• Zenith Holidays
• Eventrip
• Mach Conferences
• Adiona Travels
• NIMA