Business is booming for restaurants, attractions at Sentosa

SINGAPORE : Restaurants and tourist attractions at Sentosa have enjoyed a 20 per cent increase in their business since Resorts World Sentosa opened a week ago.

Sentosa Leisure Group said it is seeing an average of 30,000 visitors each day during this Lunar New Year.

That is twice more than the daily average.

Sentosa Leisure Group added that the Merlion is its top attraction during the Lunar New Year.

It has seen a 30 per cent increase in visitors, compared to the same period last year.

And visitors to the island are also staying an average of one day as compared to half a day before.

Hotels like Rasa Sentosa Resort are also welcoming more visitors.

Rasa Sentosa is fully booked during this Lunar New Year period.

Anticipating more visitors to the island, it has decided to close for renovations for 10 months to add new rooms and facilities.

Ben Bousnina, general manager, Rasa Sentosa Resort, said: "(Now that) Resorts World has arrived...I do not think we will have enough rooms on the island, because the whole world would like to come to Sentosa Island which has become a world's destination."


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New GM at Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines the world's premier airline, has appointed Mr. Melvin NG as the General Manager for Sri Lanka. Mr. Melvin NG joined Singapore Airlines in the year 2002, and was involved in the Head Office Sales and Marketing Division for a period of five years. Later he was posted to the Singapore Airlines regional office located in Beijing, where he provided his services as the Regional Marketing Manager. He later served as the Manager for Northern China also in Beijing for a short period before being posted to Singapore Airlines in Colombo as the General Manager for Sri Lanka.

When asked as to how he plans to promote Sri Lanka, through Singapore Airlines Mr. Melvin said, "Sri Lanka is still a relatively unknown and unexplored destination amongst a majority of the international general public. However Sri Lanka is well known to many of the experienced international travelers mostly due to its scenic beauty and popular destinations. We have been working on promoting inbound tourism, focusing on markets such as China, Hong Kong, Taipei, Australia."

According to Mr. Melvin the travel industry in Sri Lanka in the future will be experiencing good times ahead with peace finally dawning and the environment becoming more conducive for international travel. This will also greatly benefit and boost the country's inbound travel industry as Sri Lanka has unlimited resources that have yet been untapped with regards to tourism and Singapore Airlines is currently working closely with the Sri Lankan Tourist Board in this regard. Outbound travel too is expected to increase significantly with effect from next year and many companies which cutback on their expenses due to the economic recession and the country's ongoing war are now optimistic that major industrial improvements will take place and that the travel industry will be in the forefront of many of these developments.

Speaking on their future plans Mr. Melvin said, "With the very much anticipated boom in tourism, we plan to reinstate daily frequency between Colombo and Singapore from the current 5x weekly flights, in April next year."


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Wildlife Reserves Singapore looks at aggressively promoting itself in the Indian market

Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) which owns and operates Jorong BirdPark, Night Safari and Singapore Zoo is now promoting itself in the Indian market to increase Indian visitor arrivals. WRS is currently working closely with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in India and is expanding its sales team operations in the country. It will soon undertake marketing and promotional efforts in India and also develop more programmes and menus catering to the Indian travellers needs.

Talking about the potential of Indian market, Isabel Cheng, Director – Sales, Marketing and Communications, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) said, “Being a part of the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) sector poised for immense growth, India will become more affluent and Singapore will be a key destination. Based on the data we have, the Indian market is important for us and we look forward to increasing numbers by creating top of mind recall and awareness of WRS among Indian travellers.” Cheng added, “Our sales team has started making forays into the Indian market and it has definitely paid dividends, as Indian visitors already make up about 20 per cent of all arrivals to all the three zoos. We will dedicate more resources to build the Indian market and will work even more closely with the Singapore Tourism Board in India to reach more Indian visitors.”

The Jurong Bird Park is dedicated to more than 600 species of birds numbering 8,000 and received nine lakh visitors last year. Night Safari is an internationally acclaimed world's first wildlife park for nocturnal animals and received 1.1 million visitors last year. The Singapore Zoo is home to over 2,500 creatures of 315 species, and is world famous for its 'open concept.' It received 1.6 million visitors from across the globe in 2008. Cheng said, “We hope that Indian visitors will be able to make a trip to all three parks which are thematically different from each other. Currently, at Jorong Bird Park and the Night Safari, Indian visitors are in our top tourist profiles.”

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