Having witnessed success with their ‘The Holiday You Take Home With You’ campaign, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has now launched its Incentive-centric campaign “Inspire”. This rewards programme is a partnership between STB and major Singapore tourism industry partners such as Changi Airport Group, Gardens by the Bay, Resorts World Sentosa, Sentosa Leisure Group, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Turf Club, and Wildlife Reserves Singapore. Incentive groups travelling no later than 31 December 2014 and staying at least 1,000 visitor nights are welcome to apply for the INSPIRE programme. Applications are open till 31 July 2014 and will be evaluated individually.
“Even in today’s economy and situation, Indian companies would want to increase their top lines and revenues. For that they need to motivate their top performers and employees to push themselves further. Incentives are hence still important. US and Europe are now too expensive, so they will look at closer destinations, and that is where Singapore will benefit. Teemed with the attractions we have on offer through Inspire, it will create more value for Indian companies to choose Singapore,” said Chang Chee Pey, Executive Director – South Asia, Middle East & Africa, Singapore Tourism Board.
India is the first country where STB has launched Inspire, and Chee Pey hopes that the initiative will revive Indians’ interest in Singapore as a destination. “Travel is now part of the Indians’ lifestyle and ingrained in their psyche. Once they come to terms with the dollar rate rise, they will go back to travel. It is not something they will give up,” he added.
Speaking about the partnerships forged for Inspire, Chee Pey revealed that STB is open to adding more partners to the initiative at a later stage if the campaign is successful. While the campaign has been launched for this year, STB has plans to go beyond one year if it receives good response.
When asked about air connectivity improving Singapore’s odds as a destination this year, Chee Pey stated that Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh visited Singapore recently and signed a new air services agreement with Singapore to grant 10 per cent more air rights between the two countries. “Right now, Singapore carriers have exhausted their air rights to India, and this will be a welcome move. Of course we are always pushing to see if we can get more flights into more cities in India. For instance, Pune has always been a market we have been interested in establishing direct flight connectivity with. We hope that the Indian government will grant us some of these requests down the road,” Chee Pey added.
He further revealed that Tiger Airways is looking to expand to the East, maybe Kolkata, and even the North East. There have been talks also with Tiger Airways about flying into Guwahati, he added.
Highlighting their activity with the Indian travel trade, Chee Pey said that STB has tied up with Kuoni India to do the holiday bazaar in five cities for their roadshows (Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai) which will have a certain Singapore focus. In October, STB will be launching phase three of our The Holiday You Take Home With You campaign.
STB, in association with Asia Cruise Association, also recently organised training sessions for the Indian market in Mumbai and New Delhi on cruise tourism. Commenting on these initiatives, GB Srithar, Area Director South Asia Marketing, STB said, “The key role STB can play to further cruise tourism is to bring the cruise liners together and look at cruising as a whole. Indian travellers still don’t have cruises high on their lists and we need to promote it more. Going forward, we will work more closely with the industry for trainings and promotions for cruises.”
