Hello Everyone, hope you all are safe and healthy. As I see generally, people are craving to travel again but there is a lot of apprehension. Singapore still being one of the most preferred destinations by Indians, I thought to gather inputs from Singapore Tourism Board to get a general idea about the steps they are taking during COVID times and their plans for International tourists. I thank  Mr. GB Srithar, Regional Director (India, Middle East and South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board for responding to our queries and informing about the way forward. Here you go….

What are the steps that Singapore Tourism Board is taking to ensure safety of travellers during COVID Pandemic?
Singapore is fortunate that we have the capacity and resources to manage the Covid-19 pandemic in a robust manner and we have made good progress. Majority of the economy has re-opened since Singapore entered into the second phase of “A Safe Singapore” on 19 June 2020. Singapore is ranked by Deep Knowledge Centre, an
independent think tank body, as the 4th safest country in the world for Covid-19. This is a mark of assurance that Singapore is doing things right.

STB has worked closely with the National Environment Agency (NEA) and other government agencies to roll out the ” SG Clean campaign which was first launched in Feb 2020. The SG Clean quality mark is our national mark of excellence for environmental public hygiene and the government’s effort to rally businesses and the public to uphold good sanitisation standards and hygiene practices.

Singapore is going digital and contactless to provide added reassurance to visitors when international travel resumes. Measures such as practising safe distancing, contact tracing, autonomous cleaning robots, antimicrobial coating for cleaning, and contactless check-in and immigration, have been applied to ensure people’s safety.

Some attractions have gone completely contactless too, with apps that allow customers to pre-book at appointed time slots to visit the attractions.

What are the initiatives under consideration in terms of benefits for travellers to lure them for travels again?
It will take a while for global travel sentiment to return and for borders to re-open and we are prepared for recovery to be a slow process. International travel and destination choices will be shaped by factors like safety, proximity, and air connectivity.

Industry associations have also been actively participating in the various initiatives. As part of the SingapoRediscovers domestic tourism campaign, the Singapore Retailers Association, Singapore Hotel Association, Association of Singapore Attractions and
Chinatown Business Association have been rallying their members to collaborate on marketing and promotions, and curate fresh and authentic experiences. These can also be adapted for tourists and MICE audiences at a later stage.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) and Singapore Airlines (SIA) are teaming up with STB on joint marketing campaigns to drive awareness of local brands – CAG will expand their portfolio of local brands on iShopChangi from next month, while SIA will soon offer
Design Orchard brands on KrisShop. Trip.com Group – a key partner that STB is working closely with – also recently organised a live webcast for locals, promoting flexible hotel reservations at discounted rates. They will work with STB on other initiatives for
overseas visitors later.

For our audiences around the world, we are focusing on strengthening Singapore’s brand image in their minds. Throughout this pandemic period, STB and many tourism businesses have stepped up efforts to enable people from around the world to experience Singapore from the safety of their homes. We have come up with interesting and off-beat initiatives to ensure that we remain top-of-mind among our future visitors, when the time is right for them to return.

 Where is the focus in terms of type of travel? Is it going to be MICE focussed or family or adventure or anything else?
Currently, we are focusing on domestic travel, given the limitations with international travel.
We have also gradually resumed MICE events with precautionary measures in place. STB will start accepting applications for organisers to pilot Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) events of up to 250 attendees from 1 October
2020. STB and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) will review all MICE event proposals, and event organisers may proceed only upon obtaining MTI’s approval. Pilot events taking place under this arrangement include the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) Conference, in October 2020.

India remains an important market to us, and we will continue to promote Singapore to families, early & established careers, meetings and incentive groups, and travellers from key metro and secondary cities. We will also be focusing on two new areas – re-
establishing the destination’s attractiveness for Overseas School Trips (OST), and positioning Singapore as an international wedding destination. In fact, STB India will embark on a webinar in October 2020 to reach out to wedding planners across India, and share Singapore’s offerings for Indian weddings and celebrations.

We will continue to explore innovative and unique initiatives to bring engaging content to the audiences in a creative way.

Anything that is being taken care of or is unique that will make Singapore stand out as the most preferred destination?
STB was among the first National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) to stage an elaborate consumer engagement event in India, digitally, in partnership with Zomato, during the on-going COVID-19 situation. As a part of Zomaland@home promotions, we also collaborated with few social media personalities from the stand-up, music and culinary  areas to reach out to their followers through live sessions, culinary activations, and Q&A sessions between these personalities and our artistes from Singapore.

In partnership with Tripoto, STB launched a one-stop guide to encourage Indian travelers to “Rediscover Now, Travel Later”. IN the form of a microsite, the guide includes ‘Singapore@home’ which invites the Indian audience to virtually experience some of the best attractions and offerings in Singapore.

We also recently participated in the Windmill Festival 2020, a virtual event targeted at the family segment, wherein we created a Singapore Experience Zone allowing children and parents alike to enjoy the joys of Singapore from the comfort of their homes.

Additionally, we have ramped up our trade engagement efforts through a series of update sessions and webinars on Destination Singapore to deepen their leisure and MICE product knowledge. We have also undertaken the #UnitedWeStand trade initiative, under which we launched a WhatsApp channel to establish regular
communication with the trade fraternity and show solidarity and unity to our partners.

STB has also signed a three year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, to address the needs of Singapore’s tourism and lifestyle small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) impacted by COVID-19. The STB-
Visa collaboration focuses on two strategic areas to revive the local tourism industry – joint research and analytics and marketing partnerships. As international travel gradually resumes, both organisations will scale up their partnership to include joint
international marketing, powered by data and insights derived from their combined research.

All such initiatives have been undertaken to ensure Singapore remains top-of-mind and the most preferred destination among our future visitors, when the time is right for them to return.