TravTalk India Online Magazine
GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East, South Asia and Africa, Singapore Tourism Board, shares his perspective on Singapore’s journey in reimagining the tourism experience it offers to visitors. Quality Tourism guides its continuous growth and transformation as a future-forward destination.
It is no insider secret that consumers across the world are rethinking what they spend their money on: research indicates that globally, disposable income is increasingly being invested in experiences, rather than just material goods. It is this very desire to be immersed in extraordinary experiences and live up the present moments fully that is driving the travel and tourism evolution. This had started even before the Covid pandemic but has certainly accelerated rapidly as travel resumed in a Covid-endemic world.
Quality Tourism
Singapore is not new to pioneering innovation in the tourism space. Quality Tourism – a development model that emphasizes innovative and capable tourism enterprises, local engagement, and attracting visitors who enhance tourism’s contributions to the economy and society – guides our continuous growth and transformation as a future-forward destination. Over the past two pandemic years, the country has made full use of the tourism downtime by radically reimagining what Indian travellers can enjoy when they visit Singapore. Today, travellers can experience the familiar-favourite Singapore that they’ve always known and loved – but with a brand-new side to what the city has to offer.
A refreshing and delightful experience that will enthral consumers of all age groups, is the Museum of Ice Cream. Reimagining what a traditional museum can offer, it offers the visitor a highly-Instagrammable attraction with 14 different larger-than-life exhibits, all themed around the universally-loved dessert. Just imagine: a hallway covered in banana splits and a pool filled with rainbow sprinkles. In the one year since it opened, the attraction has already proved to be a must-visit amongst Indian travellers both young and old. When I visited, I spent about two hours there, posing among the colourful displays, jumping around like a child and indulging gleefully in the free-flow ice cream flavours throughout the attraction.
Adding new experiences
As a compact, island destination, Singapore makes well-considered decisions on adding new attractions and refreshing, expanding the tourism landscape. Some of our most iconic attractions have taken it upon themselves to introduce extraordinary experiential elements to their well-loved offerings. Take for example Gardens by the Bay: in conjunction with the upcoming launch of the much-anticipated sequel to the hit 2009 sci-fi film Avatar, the popular Cloud Forest, with its misty peaks and winding paths, has started the world’s only Avatar: The Experience. This exclusive experience, running until early next year, allows visitors to immerse themselves in the fantasy world in the film, and rediscover an otherwise familiar attraction in a whole new light.
Reimagining our iconic Singaporean attractions also extends to wellness experiences – another important phenomenon that crystallised especially clearly during the pandemic, when erstwhile travellers realized just how important travel and tourism was to their holistic wellbeing. At Sunrise Yoga at the Sands, visitors get a chance to practise their asanas and start their day on the 56th floor of the Marina Bay Sands, with a guided yoga and meditation class at the breath-taking Sands Sky Park against the jaw-dropping backdrop of the sun rising over the glittering Singapore skyline. Run in partnership with popular fitness and wellness brand Virgin Active, the weekly experience is an example of how Singapore leverages our strength as an urban wellness haven, tapping onto our iconic city landscape to offer creative, accessible, and ultimately rejuvenating experiences for our visitors. No rolling mountains or alpine meadows? No
problem! With our unique array of holistic wellness experiences right in the heart of the city, we offer our visitors a chance to fully leverage the restorative benefits of travel while visiting Singapore’s famous sights and landmarks.
Staying ahead of the trends
Singapore has always prided itself on staying ahead of the latest travel trends shaping tomorrow’s tourism landscape. Beyond wellness, the other big conversation that cannot be avoided is sustainability. As a small low-lying island with no natural resources, sustainability is not just a trendy buzzword for us, but an actual existential need for our survival. We have developed a destination sustainability strategy and roadmap for the tourism sector in line with the Singapore Green Plan 2030, with a focus on environmental sustainability and sustainable management. Among other efforts, we have created the Hotel Sustainability Roadmap with the Singapore Hotel Association, which sets clear parameters and guidelines for the hotel and MICE industry to become fully net-carbon neutral by 2050.
All of this to say that Singapore constantly reinvents itself keeping a firm eye on the future – multi-faceted, people-centric and shaping responsible tourism experiences, to give visitors multiple reasons to visit and revisit. The future of travel is dotted with still more seismic shifts, and we will continue to meet the constantly-evolving needs of tomorrow’s travellers with passion, purpose, and – it must be said – playfulness! We are after all in the serious business of fun, and reimagining Singapore is always a journey.
