AllWays Traveller Features
Singapore’s diverse plans to revive tourism
Perched on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, exotic city-state Singapore is famous for Raffles Hotel, mouth-watering food, the shopper's heaven of Orchard Road and, more recently, newer developments like Gardens by the Bay.
Singapore is also an excellent stopover for Australian, British and European travellers flying the kangaroo route. I usually visit, or at least transit, most years but for obvious reasons not last year, unfortunately.
1st row (l-r) – The old and the new, Fullerton Hotel, Merlion, cable car to Sentosa Island.
2nd row – Singapore Zoo Night Safari, Raffles Hotel, Little India, Botanic Gardens.
3rd row – Orchard Road, Emerald Hill Road, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Flyer. Photos: Judy Barford
Considered one of the better performers in terms of COVID-19 management (ranked number 13 out of 98 countries evaluated by the Lowy Institute), Singapore is taking a creative approach to the revival of its tourism industry.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and KrisShop, Singapore Airlines' flagship retailer, have announced a three-year partnership that will jointly market home-grown brands and grow their e-commerce reach, as well as create seamless experiences for their local and international customers.
Under this partnership, content will be co-developed to profile local brands on KrisShop.com and highlight the vibrancy of Singapore's retail scene.
A domestic campaign will launch first, followed by the second phase – a global roll-out across various key markets as international travel resumes.
To help local brands reach a wider international audience, KrisShop.com will be the exclusive e-commerce platform for Design Orchard, offering the retail showcase on Orchard Road an additional distribution channel.
"Singapore has a vibrant retail scene and we are excited to partner a home-grown retailer like KrisShop to shine the spotlight on our local brands," said Lynette Pang, STB's Assistant Chief Executive (Marketing Group). "Profiling local brands is part of our strategy to build destination affinity and mindshare, and ensure that Singapore stays top-of-mind during this period and when travel resumes."
About KrisShop
KrisShop started out as the inflight duty-free shop of Singapore Airlines, but has since evolved beyond the inflight catalogue with a flagship e-commerce and lifestyle portal, following a joint venture two years ago between Singapore Airlines, ground handler SATS, and duty-free retailer 3Sixty (previously DFASS Group).
With a collection of home-grown and global brands, KrisShop offers consumers the opportunity to buy inflight or online and have their shopping delivered to their door or to their flight on Singapore Airlines, SilkAir or Scoot. Travellers can further enjoy duty-free prices when they shop inflight or pre-order to their flights. STB and KrisShop will also explore integrating KrisShop.com's features with STB's official VisitSingapore mobile application, allowing users to shop on the go.
Increased confidence in both business and leisure travel
STB will also roll out 'Reimagine Travel in Singapore', a series of engagements with members of the local community and tourism partners to create ideas and spur the renewal of Singapore tourism. The initiative will be launched later this year and more details will be announced in due course.
While it will take time for mass international travel to resume, there are promising signs of future demand. In Singapore, an Ipsos brand health study across 14 markets conducted late last year revealed that leisure and BTMICE (Business Travel and Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions) travellers have retained a strong perception of Singapore being a safe destination to visit, despite COVID-19. The markets surveyed were Australia, the UK, USA and Germany; China and Hong Kong; and India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam
According to the study, confidence in travelling overseas for leisure and business has been steadily increasing, with 76 per cent of leisure travellers and 90 per cent of BTMICE travellers indicating they are likely to travel in the next 12 months, if possible.
Reimagine City and Nature
Looking further ahead, Singapore aims to be the world's most sustainable urban destination. It is investing in new products and services that take into account the needs of the community and the environment. It claims to be on track to achieve this vision with nature-based concepts in places of interest such as Jewel Changi Airport and Gardens by the Bay.
gardensbythebay.com.sg/en.html
There are also plans to transform Singapore into a 'City In Nature' over the next decade, developing the Jurong Lake District Tourism Development to be a world-class lifestyle destination that features the best of sustainability, innovation, nature and science, and redeveloping the Mandai Precinct as a world-class eco-themed nature cluster with the introduction of new wildlife attractions as well as eco-friendly accommodation offerings.
stb.gov.sg/content/stb/en/trade-events-and-resources/jld-tourism-development.html
Singapore is clean, green, safe and vibrant – truly a self-contained destination with something for everyone.
Below: Eating out in Singapore.
Useful links
Location (Map)
When you subscribe to the AllWays Traveller, we will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.
About the author
Contact info
ISSN 2634-7032
London, United Kingdom
+44 0 7764 198 286