Singapore Tourism Board ramps up recovery initiatives with travel trade partners !

Singapore Tourism Board ramps up recovery initiatives with travel trade partners !

Unveils Early Careers and Weddings as focus areas for 2023; Trade engagement centered around the theme of 'Ramping up pathways to recovery, together!"

February 13, 2023, Chennai: The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) rolled out ambitious plans to make the city-state an even more desirable destination for Indian visitors in 2023 at a trade engagement event in Chennai today, as it aims to build on last year's post-pandemic travel rebound.

This comes in along with announcement by the Indian government of removing all RTPCR requirements, in addition to all covid restrictions being lifted, for Indian travelers returning from Singapore with effect from 13th February 2023, 11 am. This shall further facilitate fuss free travel for Indian visitors to Singapore.

Travel from India to Singapore has picked up pace since April 2022 with the greater easing of travel restrictions. India accounted for over 686,000 of the overall 6.3 million global visitor arrivals in 2022, emerging as Singapore's second-largest source market after Indonesia (1.1 million visitors). With direct flight connectivity between Singapore and 17 Indian cities?, Singapore is poised to tap into the burgeoning travel demand from across the country.

Built around the theme 'Ramping up Pathways to Recovery, Together!', the STB's vision for 2023 and the coming years includes a focus on positioning Singapore as a destination that offers rewarding travel experience to Indian travellers by broadening its appeal, both to a wider Indian demographic which includes young Indian travellers, and as an aspirational destination to celebrate life milestones such as weddings and anniversaries. STB will also sharpen its offerings in its family segment, Meetings and Incentive travel, and cruise tourism strongholds.

GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East, South Asia and Africa, said, "A total of 37 Singapore travel industry partners are in Chennai to engage with our partner-friends here, making it the largest Singapore tourism stakeholder gathering. India has long been one of Singapore's largest tourism source markets, and is only set to become even more important in 2023, bolstered by a strong recovery in 2022 of close to 50% of the visitor arrivals achieved in 2019. The year ahead in Singapore is exciting, with hotly-anticipated tourism developments and we invite many more Indians with different passion points, travel desires, and aspirations to enjoy our diverse, vibrant, and reimagined offerings."

The trade engagement event showcased new attractions, initiatives and focus areas STB is working on. Upcoming tourism developments that will be launched in 2023 include Sentosa's multi-concept family development, Sensoryscape experiential park, and Mandai Wildlife Reserve's Bird Paradise. These developments are expected to further anchor Singapore's destination attractiveness to travellers from all across India.

The Chennai trade engagement session took place following the Singapore tourism stakeholders' participation at SATTE 2023 in Greater Noida, Delhi and trade outreach session in Mumbai. Two wedding networking engagements with 35 top wedding planners in partnership with WeddingSutra took place on 7 and 8 February in Mumbai and Delhi respectively.

All inbound travellers to the city must be fully vaccinated based on WHO's guidelines, otherwise, they must submit a negative pre-departure test. We maintain vigilance, constantly monitoring the Covid situation. If necessary, we will make adjustments or implement new measures, based on science, evidence, and data.

27 The 16 currently connected cities are: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Trivandrum, Vishakhapatnam and Thiruvananthapuram. In addition, there was recent announcement of direct flight from Bhubaneswar by Air Indigo.

Passion SG Made Possible 

Over the last few decades, Singapore has established itself as a global business and leisure hub. It offers visitors a mix of eclectic experiences. Visitors can take in live sports, arts, entertainment, or a wildlife safari, indulge themselves in delectable cuisines that are reflective of Singapore's cultural diversity, or engage in thrill-seeking adventure exploits. Singapore is increasingly also emerging as a wellness destination, with a whole host of emotional and physical well-being experiences on offer. At the same time, it takes the lead in pioneering sustainable tourism, with its 'City in Nature' vision a key pillar of the Singapore Green Plan 2030.