TravTalk India Online Magazine
Located just an hour’s ferry ride away from Singapore, Bintan Resorts is gearing up to reclaim its place among the Indian travellers. With significant infrastructure upgrades underway in Singapore, including a new international airport, the destination is highlighting its luxury offerings to tap into the vast potential of the Indian market.
Hazel Jain from Bintan
Bintan Island has been making big efforts to re-familiarise the Indian market with what it has to offer. And everything is working in tandem for this to happen – while Singapore’s Changi Airport is easing the transfer of passengers going onward to Bintan Resorts, the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal in Singapore is currently undergoing a US $14.9 million upgrade in stages to modernise its facilities and expand its passenger capacity by 20 per cent.
Sharing what Bintan Resorts has to offer, Abdul Wahab, its Chief Operating Officer, says, “One of our main focus areas will be to work closely with the travel trade partners for promoting the island to their clients. Sports tourism is one of the things we want to highlight. This means mass sports, such as marathons, triathlons, Iron Man, bicycle race, and, of course, golf. We want to offer what Singapore does not. These large sporting events cannot be done in Singapore, but Bintan is perfect for them. You can ride a bicycle for 100 kilometres and not see one traffic light. We also want to develop more hotel inventory. Bintan Resorts has about 2,800 hotel keys right now, including Four Points by Sheraton Bintan; Lagoi Bay that opened last February; Indigo and Holiday Inn are ready, and Mövenpick will open by end of the year. This will translate to about 1,200 keys. Bintan Resorts’ plans to add another 3,000-4,000 keys in the next three to four years.”
While the destination is making every effort to offer the best it can offer to tourists, the sellers are also going all out to tap the full potential of the Indian market. As the preferred DMC for Bintan Resorts, Rakesh Khetrapal, Founder & Executive Director, Pacific Trails, explains what his team is focussing on right now to connect with the Indian travel trade. “Right now, the India market perceives Bintan Resort as a premium, up-market product because there is a ferry involved from Singapore or because of the hotels here. Having said that, it is still cost-effective destination. Pre-COVID, we used to receive a reasonably good number from India considering that this island only entertained about 2.3 million visitors in 2019. We want to double the 2019 numbers in the next two years. This destination has a huge potential when it comes to the Indian market. We are in talks with Kesari Tours, Veena World, MakeMyTrip, Thomas Cook India, and SOTC. What travellers can’t do in Singapore they can do here – it’s a great complementary destination to Singapore. I am promoting Bintan aggressively for two-three-night stay. I also have an active inquiry for a group of 500 pax from Ahmedabad for a MICE group,”
he reveals.
The hotels in Bintan Resorts are also ready to welcome Indian clientele. Ratna Wahyuni, General Manager, Natra Bintan, Tribute Portfolio Resort, says that almost 80 per cent of the Indian guests that stay at her hotel come via Singapore.
“India swings between number two and three for us when it comes to the international market. Singapore leads, followed by our domestic market, Indonesia, and then India tied with South Korea,” explains Wahyuni.
