‘Welcome back to Singapore’

New Vaccinated Travel Lane that allows travellers from India and Sri Lanka access into quaratine-free Singapore. GB Srithar, Regional Director (India, Middle East & South Asia), STB, discusses new developments that will interest the travel trade.

Hazel Jain

What was the idea behind initiating the WhatsApp business account for the trade?

STB India launched its pan-India WhatsApp Business Channel in August 2020 under our travel trade engagement solidarity call of #UnitedWeStand to actively engage with our travel trade partner-friends. It was part of our plans to expand trade communication efforts, beyond the virtual webinars and engagement sessions, e-mailer distribution of quarterly newsletters and regular interaction activities. Our intent is to strengthen our trade engagement relationships with the travel trade fraternity in India. As one of the first National Tourism Organisations to introduce a WhatsApp Business Account in India, we wanted to leverage this platform to disseminate information and updates on Destination Singapore in a direct and real-time manner.

How has the response been for this?

Since the launch in August 2020, the response to our WhatsApp channel from our travel trade fraternity has been growing. There are currently 1,600 travel trade subscribers on our channel and we continue our outreach efforts to bring in more subscribers. As the channel provides timely information on destination Singapore, subscribers will find it useful to be well-equipped with content relevant for their clients. We invite our partner-friends to easily subscribe to the WhatsApp channel by clicking this link http://bit.ly/stbindia or scanning the QR code.

What kind of conversations happen on these channels?

It is a push communications channel, direct from STB to our trade partner-friends, where we present real-time updates and useful information on destination Singapore, beneficial to them and their clients.

Have some of the trade partners started getting inquiries for travel to Singapore?

Since the announcement of the India-Singapore VTL arrangement, many of our partners have shown interest in Singapore for year-end travel. As per one of our partners, Flight Centre Travel Group, inquiries for Singapore have increased by eight times, coinciding with the vacation and festive season. A recent survey by trade partners Thomas Cook and SOTC indicated that Singapore continues to be a favored destination across their consumer segments with 65 per cent of respondents to a recent survey, indicating keen interest to visit the city once restrictions were eased.

Tell us about some of the trade engagements STB has lined up for December 2021 and 2022?

With travel between India and Singapore now possible for short-stay visitors through the VTL arrangement, we will continue into 2022, our trade engagement theme of ‘Charting our Pathways to Tourism Recovery’. We seek to work with our travel trade partner-friends to present Singapore as destination of choice to their clients. Recently, STB, Singapore Airline and Changi Airport Group jointly organised a trade update webinar to socialize the customer journey and VTL application with travel agents. The webinar saw an attendance of 1,000 agents from India, and we were heartened by the response. This indicated interest among Indian travel trade fraternity to promote Singapore as a top-of-mind destination among Indian travellers.  We are monitoring the evolving situation due to Omicron variant and will adjust our plans, accordingly. Our rallying call and show of solidarity with the travel fraternity continues with our #UnitedWeStand messaging.

Singapore welcomes back Indian visitors through VTL

Speaking at the second of a series of trade update webinars on December 7, titled ‘Welcome Back to Singapore,’ GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East and South Asia, STB, said, “We are delighted that six daily VTL flights commenced on November 29, between India and Singapore. This is a big step towards promoting tourism as we ‘Chart Our Pathways to Tourism Recovery’ together with our travel trade partner-friends and welcome back Indian visitors.” The VTL enables fully vaccinated travellers from India to visit Singapore without the need for quarantine, subject to applying for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP) and complying with safe travel measures.

The two sessions of webinars on November 25 and December 7, jointly organised by the STB, Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport Group, were well attended by more than 2,000 travel agents from the travel fraternity across India. This showed the strong interest to promote Singapore as one of the top of mind destinations among the consumers in India.