TravTalk India Online Magazine
Chin Sak Hin, Assistant Chief Executive, Sentosa Development Corporation, was recently in Mumbai to promote the destination in India and strengthen ties with the Indian trade partners. He said that the visiting guests can spend even a week at the destination, which promises to offer a myriad of expriences for them.
Hazel Jain
Sentosa has been a favourite among Indian leisure travellers. But now Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) is looking to tap newer segments from India – M!CE and weddings. Chin Sak Hin, Assistant Chief Executive & Chief Financial Officer, Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), was recently in Mumbai to meet travel partners in this regard. He said, “We are seeing Indian tourists return to Sentosa. While we still claw back to pre-COVID numbers, the growth is certainly steady. Now, we want to strengthen our business for M!CE and wedding segments from India. Sentosa is a wonderful place to conduct weddings. Even in leisure space, while we are very strong in the family space, we want to reach out to the growing adult audience.”
Sentosa recently also signed an MoU with Thomas Cook India and SOTC for leisure and corporate groups. “We have just started marketing weddings in Sentosa. We have seen Indian weddings take place in the past, but that happened organically. We have now appointed an Indian wedding planner in India. Hopefully, we will start to see more weddings take place at Sentosa. We, along with Singapore Tourism Board, recently also participated in a wedding roadshow and have engaged with many wedding planners and organised FAM trips for some of them. We can curate and organise weddings using our hotels. We also have caterers that specialise in Indian food,” Hin said.
To sweeten the deal for Indian couples, SDC will offer incentives that could range from complimentary pyrotechnic displays or drone light shows, Hin added.
Sentosa will soon embark on a three-city India roadshow covering Jaipur, Pune and Coimbatore. “We want to reach out to those cities that have a good connection with Singapore – they become our natural markets. India is always in the top five markets for us – sometimes it is number one. The average length of stay right now is around one-and-a-half days to two days. But we think Indians can easily spend even a week at Sentosa,” he opined.
Currently, India accounts for nearly a third of overseas visitors to Sentosa Island for the first half of 2023. To leverage this growth potential, SDC has inked one-year strategic partnerships with Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC Travel. The partnership will see SDC working closely with them on activities such as product development, joint consumer promotions, as well as publicity to raise Sentosa’s profile in the India market, increase Sentosa’s capture rates of the India market, particularly in Tier II and III cities. Both Thomas Cook and SOTC will also curate exclusive packages that feature the latest offerings in Sentosa.
Ongoing island transformation
Sentosa has pushed ahead with developments even amid the pandemic, and new discoveries await on the island, including attractions like the SkyHelix Sentosa, Scentopia, and Central Beach Bazaar. Apart from the anticipated return of KidZania Singapore in 2024, the latest offering being unveiled is the Shangri-La Group’s first non-hotel, lifestyle and entertainment precinct, The Palawan@Sentosa. It is a day visit.
