India has moved up to the third position from the fourth in terms of visitor arrival to Singapore along with a double digit growth of 17 per cent growth until October 2017 and it continues to be the third largest tourism receipts generating market for Singapore. To deepen this relationship with the Indian travel trade, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) organized a two-city roadshow in Mumbai and Jaipur and set up a Singapore: Passion Made Possible pavilion at SATTE New Delhi 2018. The first road show was flagged off in Mumbai on January 23 followed by Jaipur on January 25 and wrapping up in Delhi with SATTE from January 31 – February 2, 2018.
2017 was a landmark year for STB with strategic associations with a major Bollywood movie ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’, participation in cruise forums, travel trade conferences such as SATTE, partnerships with airlines, launch of the Vegetarian Food Guide, penetration in the regional markets such as Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, etc. and the unveiling of a new brand identity, Singapore: Passion made Possible. Taking this forward, this year will be centered around the theme ‘With Passion, Forging New Possibilities’.
The roadshows featured stakeholders from Singapore representing hotels, airlines, integrated resorts, attractions, Destination Management Companies (DMC) and cruise operators interacting and networking with STB’s travel and trade partners in India. The delegation was led by G B Srithar, regional director (SAMEA) for Singapore Tourism Board, Adrian Kong, area director (South Asia) for Singapore Tourism Board. Joining them was Lynette Ang, chief marketing officer, Sentosa Development Corporation.
GB Srithar, while addressing the audience, spoke about deepening existing partnerships and fostering new ones with the travel trade partners. He emphasised the need to bring unique and evolving travel experiences in Singapore to the Indian audience. He said, “India has always been a key source market for Singapore. We are happy to have already crossed 2016’s full year 1.1 million visitor arrivals mark from India as at end October 2017. We humbly thank all our travel and trade media fraternity for their support in bringing our destination promotion messages to our audiences. Through our roadshows and participation at SATTE Delhi 2018, 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.”