Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has witnessed a 14 per cent growth from India market in the first eight months of 2017. With this development, India has outperformed rest of the source markets this year with the global growth being four per cent.
Lionel Yeo, Chief Executive, STB said, “On the global perspective Singapore Tourism is on a positive growth trend. We welcomed 16.4 million visitors in 2016; out of this 1.1 million were from India. India is one of the top five source markets for us. In 2017, we are continuing to see a good momentum for growth, for the first eight months overall visitor arrivals is up by four per cent and Indian arrivals is up by 14 per cent. India is outperforming our rest of the source markets this year.”
STB has recently introduced its new campaign ‘Passion Made Possible’ to further target travellers from India to experience the destination. To further promote this campaign STB organised a three day experiential festival, ‘Singapore Weekender’ in Mumbai.
Speaking about the event GB Srithar, Regional Director – South Asia, Middle East & Africa, STB said, “Over the years, we have been successful in establishing Singapore as a top family travel destination for Indian travellers. Our efforts to promote the country as a family-friendly destination have been effective and this segment takes up the biggest proportion of Indian visitors to Singapore. However, with an estimated 65 per cent of India’s population being 35 years and under with strong disposable income and increasingly travelling overseas, we are reaching out to them. These young adults or working millennials seek immersive, unique and local experiences and Singapore presents a plethora of options.”
Under the new brand STB has taken a different approach of targeting seven different segments under their ‘Passion Tribes’. Lynette Pang, Assistant Chief Executive, Marketing Group STB said, “Today, travellers are more evolved, and are demanding more from a destination. We are putting focus on interests and passion of travellers. We have developed seven passion tribes to cater to travellers. With the changing profile of travellers, we are rethinking our strategies and not targeting demographics but passions with the new campaign.”
Apart from experiences Singapore is also constantly developing its products to attract more travellers. The destination is now investing in the Mandai region to develop it as an eco-tourism hub.
When asked about the idea behind the campaign and new developments Yeo said, “We have been promoting Singapore for the last 52 years. In the past our focus was to promote the destination and its strengths. We have realised that the travel consumers has significantly shifted in seeking information. All the brands today have to fight for attention. We wanted to go beyond promoting just tourism. Our new campaign promotes the culture, experience and the people of Singapore. With this new campaign we are promising the investors and showing that we have reliable partners in Singapore. The essence of our marketing wouldn’t change; we will only change the narratives. We want more people to come and explore the experiences which we offer.”
He further said, “After the huge success of the Night Safari in Singapore, we are now investing a lot in Mandai. We will introduce two new parks in this region one will be a bird park and one rainforest park. This will create a holistic destination with a lot of new experiences.”
