TravTalk India Online Magazine
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) continued its travel trade outreach for this year by participating in SATTE Delhi 2020. Based on the theme, “Growing Connections, Achieving Together”, the trade engagement is aimed at deepening the STB’s and tourism stakeholders’ existing partnerships and foster new ones with the local travel trade fraternity.
During the trade show, the STB had set up a Singapore: Passion Made Possible pavilion where it presented on its schemes for MICE and Cruise to partner with the tourism sector in harnessing growth opportunities, as well as, latest and upcoming developments in Singapore’s tourism landscape such as expansion plans for Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World, redevelopment of Sentosa together with Pulau Brani as part of a landmark Master Plan and the Mandai eco-tourism hub etc. The STB also unveiled two new focus areas for the India market in 2020 –positioning Singapore as an international wedding destination and re-establishing the destination’s attractiveness for Overseas School Trips (OST).
The delegation was led by the Singapore Tourism Board’s G.B Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East & South Asia, Raymond Lim, Area Director, India & South Asia – New Delhi and LIM Si Ting, Area Director, India & South Asia – Mumbai.
While speaking about the STB’s efforts to showcase Singapore as a destination of choice among Indian travellers, GB Srithar said, “India is the third most important visitor arrival source market for Singapore and we have been steadfastly engaging travellers through the travel trade, media partnerships and various marketing initiatives. Through our recently held roadshow in Chennai and participation at SATTE Delhi 2020, we seek to renew our ties with the travel trade, entrench existing partnerships and forge new ones through creative promotions, and in the process, ensuring meaningful results for both our Singapore stakeholders and the local travel trade. With overall tourist outbound from India on the rise, we look forward to another successful year of Indian visitorship to Singapore.”
Singapore welcomed 1.44 million visitors from India in 2018, making it the third largest visitor arrivals (VA) source market for Singapore. As of end October 2019,
Singapore has received 1,190,000 visitors from India. This is the 5th year in a row Singapore has welcomed more than one million Indian travellers to experience its diverse offerings.
Also present at the tradeshow was Mira Bharin, Director (Brand, Marketing and Communication), Sentosa Development Corporation who said, “As a key player in the international leisure and tourism industry, it is important that we continue to enhance Sentosa’s appeal as a world-class holiday destination so that we remain top-of-mind for both locals and tourists. With a slew of long-, mid-, and near-term developments in our pipeline, guests will have something new to look forward to each time they visit and return to Sentosa. We are heartened that India continues to be Sentosa’s top inbound market. We will however not rest on our laurels, and will continue to deepen our engagement with our international audiences so as to ensure Sentosa remains an essential part of the Singapore experience.”
Among various new offerings in Sentosa’s pipeline are free interactive night attractions, Magical Shores, which will make its home on the vibrant Siloso Beach from 23 January 2020, as well as Stacks at Siloso, a novel mixed use container development at Siloso Beach, which will be launched by mid-2020. These offerings are part of SDC’s broader push to strengthen Sentosa’s position as a night destination, and come just months after SDC unveiled exciting possibilities for two islands – Sentosa and the adjacent Pulau Brani, which currently houses a port – as part of a landmark Master Plan to redevelop the islands into a game-changing leisure and tourism destination.
2019 was an eventful year for STB in the Indian market. The STB promoted the destination brand “Passion Made Possible” vigorously and embarked on several creative consumer engagement initiatives, like the Singapore Weekender 2.0 in Delhi, Singapore Experience Zone in Zomaland and launch of Nasi and Mee in Mumbai (a restaurant specialising in Singapore food offerings). Engagement with the consumers also included content collaborations, like Voice of legends project with musical maestros S.P Balasubramaniyam and K.J. Yesudas, collaboration with Tripoto for a travel-based webisode series, a partnership with Momspresso promoting Mommy-daughter holiday in Singapore, collaboration with celebrity chef Saransh Goila & Voot for a web series titled #CheatWeek in Singapore highlighting the culinary offerings of the city. The Board also undertook intensive travel trade outreach efforts across more than 30 cities in India to connect with travel intermediaries promoting Singapore as both a business and leisure destination.
