Singapore Tourism Board launches City Advantage tag for business travellers

Singapore Tourism Board (STB), as the latest addition to its ‘2009 Reasons to meet in Singapore’ campaign, has launched the City Advantage tag for business travellers. The campaign promotes Singapore as a preferred MICE destination with a host of offerings ranging from dining to retail, and attractions to healthcare and wellness. More than 20 hotels have come together to offer privileges such as free unlimited Internet services, complimentary breakfast, accommodation extension and a host of other meetings packages. The City Advantage, which is exclusive to business travellers and delegates attending MICE events that are taking place in Singapore until December 2009, is distributed through hotels and to delegates upon registration at MICE events. Designed for both form and functionality, the City Advantage tag is compact and lightweight to suit the needs of business travellers.

“Through the City Advantage programme, we aim to showcase Singapore as a vibrant and cosmopolitan destination that offers memorable experiences for business visitors. Singapore delivers on this value proposition with the ‘2009 Reasons to meet in Singapor’ campaign, with business visitors gaining the added advantage of being able to experience the diverse leisure offerings in Singapore,” said Melissa Ow, Assistant Chief Executive, Business Travel and MICE Group, STB.

STB is also encouraging business delegates to tap on the benefits of the ‘Bring along a partner’ promotion, which features special deals for their partners such as dining and spa treatments. Information on the participating merchants under ‘2009 Reasons to meet in Singapore’ can be found on the City Advantage tag, along with contact numbers which business travellers can call to readily access taxi services, Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund and tourist information.

Elaborating on the City Advantage tag, Chew Tiong Heng, Director, Destination Marketing, STB said, “The objective of the City Advantage tag is to enhance and enrich the experiences of business visitors while they are in Singapore. The City Advantage tag and programmes under the ‘2009 Reasons to meet in Singapore’ campaign are all initiatives under BOOST (Building On Opportunities to Strengthen Tourism) to provide leisure and business visitors with value-enhancing packages and experiences. We would like to express our appreciation for the valuable efforts of our industry partners, in collaborating with the STB to develop these attractive promotions. We encourage all business travellers to take advantage of these exclusive promotions that stretch the dollar, and to enjoy Singapore’s stimulating destination offerings.”

STB launched BOOST, a SD 90 million initiative to help the tourism sector through the economic downturn. In the short term, BOOST aims to capture greater mindshare and maintain market share with ‘2009 Reasons to enjoy Singapore and ‘2009 Reasons to meet in Singapore’. Beyond these campaigns, BOOST also focuses on strengthening the sector by building capabilities, boosting collaboration with industry partners, and shaping the future of Singapore’s tourism sector.

Source

Kedah In Drive To Tap More Singapore Tourists

SINGAPORE, July 28 (Bernama) -- Kedah became the third Malaysian state after Sabah and Sarawak to carry out tourism campaigns in Singapore this year to tap the abundant local and expatriate tourist markets.

Over 30 travel agents, hoteliers and tourism bodies from Langkawi and Alor Setar are now here meeting their local counterparts to introduce Kedah tourism products to Singaporeans who are currently Malaysia's top visitors.

Their three-day tourism promotion campaign here is jointly organised by Tourism Malaysia, Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), the Kedah chapter of Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents Association (Matta) and Kedah Tourism Action Council.

Malaysia's High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk Md Husin Nayan said he hoped other Malaysian states would follow suit to conduct their tourism campaigns here to tap the rich Singapore tourist market.

Tourism Malaysia's Singapore office director Zalizam Zakaria said Malaysia had recorded about 6.1 million tourist arrivals from Singapore in the first six months of this year, and was confident that its target of 11 million for 2009 could be achieved.

Kedah hopes to attract more than 100,000 tourists from the island republic, including expatriates and travellers who are transiting in Singapore, to Langkawi and mainland Kedah this year.

LADA figures showed that nearly 40,000 Singaporean tourists visited Langkawi alone last year compared to nearly 35,000 in 2007.

Singaporeans are expected to throng Kedah when new air services between Singapore and Alor Setar and Langkawi are introduced by budget carriers Firefly and Jetstar in the coming months.

Currently, Singapore's Silk Air, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia operate more than 30 flights per week between Singapore and Langkawi.

-- BERNAMA

Source

Tourist arrivals fall 11.5%

THE downtrend in tourism numbers continued in June, leading to an expected overall decline in tourist arrivals and spending in Singapore.

Some 4.5 million tourists came to Singapore between January and June, a year-on-year decline of 11.5 per cent. Tourist spend for the same period also fell 13.5 per cent to reach $6.4 billion, according to the latest report by Singapore Tourism Board released on Thursday.

Indonesians were the biggest spenders, splurging slightly over $1 billion, followed by the Chinese who spent $575 million, Australians ($444 million) and Indians ($431 million). STB expects these top spenders to continue to generate the biggest income for the rest of the year.

Visitors from Hong Kong declined 3 per cent from last year but they made up in terms of spending some 11.3 per cent more than they did last year.

Numbers for the hotel industry continued to reflect the beating it has taken in the last half year. Average occupancy rate for the entire six months fell 11.1 percentage points from last year to hit 72 per cent. Average room rate fell 21.3 per cent to reach $195 and overall room revenue fell 33.2 per cent to hit $721 million.

STB is holding on to its initial projections of 9 to 9.5 million visitor arrivals who are expected to spend $12 billion to $12.5 billion, saying "travellers are expected to stay cautious as uncertainties continue around Influenza A (H1N1) and the general economic condition".

Source

Singapore tourist arrivals fall 12 pct in 1H

SINGAPORE -- Singapore tourist arrivals dropped in the first half of the year as travelers cut back on trips amid a global recession.

The city-state had 4.5 million tourists in the first six months of 2009, representing a 11.5 percent decline from the same period last year, the Singapore Tourism Board said Thursday. Revenue from tourism fell 13.5 percent to 6.4 billion Singapore dollars ($4.4 billion) in the January-June period, the board said.

The slump in tourism helped shrink the economy for a year until gross domestic product grew an annualized, seasonally adjusted 20 percent in the second quarter.

The board reiterated its target for tourist income between SG$12 billion and SG$12.5 billion this year compared to SG$14.8 billion last year. It aims to attract 9 million and 9.5 million tourists in 2009 versus 10.1 million in 2008.

In June, arrivals dropped 8.9 percent to 750,000 from 823,000 a year earlier. Arrivals in June rose 3.3 percent from May.

The board said hotel revenue fell 35 percent to SG$115 million ($80 million) in June from SG$177 million a year earlier.

The average hotel room rate fell to SG$179 in June, down 28 percent from a year earlier.

Source