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S$700m to boost S’pore tourism over next 5 years

SINGAPORE — The Government’s efforts to reverse the tourism slump — which included a S$20 million Golden Jubilee marketing campaign last year — appear to be bearing fruit, with visitor arrivals to the Republic up in the first two months of this year from a year ago.

SINGAPORE — The Government’s efforts to reverse the tourism slump — which included a S$20 million Golden Jubilee marketing campaign last year — appear to be bearing fruit, with visitor arrivals to the Republic up in the first two months of this year from a year ago.

This was shared by Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran at the Tourism Industry Conference on Monday (April 25), where he announced that the tourism sector will get another S$700 million boost over the next five years to improve innovation and growth.

Visitor arrivals in the first two months of the year rose 12.3 per cent year-on-year to reach 2.7 million visitors. No figures were shared on tourism receipts, which took a hit last year even as arrival numbers exceeded targets. Spending fell for the first time in six years by 6.8 per cent to S$22 billion.

Noting the “challenging environment” in recent years, Mr Iswaran said the intensified efforts by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) have brought about “early and encouraging signs of improvement”.

The S$700 million, to be disbursed over the next five years, is the third tranche of the STB’s Tourism Development Fund. The latest phase will focus on the transformation of the tourism sector, using technology such as robotics to increase productivity, or data analytics to understand visitors better.

For instance, Park Avenue Rochester Hotel will be implementing a robotics project in July this year with the STB’s support. It will deploy two robots for housekeeping and back-of house functions, such as transporting linen, refuse and bulky items.

Investments will also be channelled to niche sectors with “high growth potential”, such as the cruise industry, which generates significant spill-over economic benefits for ground handling services, bunkering and ship repair.

For hoteliers looking to redesign their premises to implement productivity-enhancing solutions, the STB will expand the scope of support under the Business Improvement Fund with a time-limited Hotel Retrofitting Grant.

While economic uncertainty means periodic fluctuations for the tourism sector, Mr Iswaran stressed that there is also the “promise of significant long-term opportunities”.

The Government and the industry will need to work together. “This partnership between (the) Government and industry stakeholders is essential to sustain not just these nascent improvements that we are seeing in the market but also to support the sector’s long-term development for opportunities that we need to seize,” he said.

There will also be efforts to boost manpower capability, such as through the Hotel Sectoral Manpower Plan under the SkillsFuture movement.

STB chief executive Lionel Yeo said the statutory board will be “intensifying trade engagement and marketing efforts” to attract visitors from Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Australia and India. These countries are Singapore’s top five source markets for tourism and remain important, said Mr Yeo during a speech at the conference.

Efforts will also be ramped up in “high-growth secondary cities” such as Surabaya and Medan in Indonesia, Tianjin and Chongqing in China and Ahmedabad and Hyderabad in India, he added.

To diversify Singapore’s source markets, Mr Yeo said the Government will explore and enter newer markets such as Myanmar, as well as pursue more visitors from mature long-haul markets in Europe and the United States.

For example, between October last year and February, arrivals from Germany grew 40 per cent on average, compared with the previous year. The Government had managed to attract more cruise ships that cater to the German-speaking market to start and end their cruises from Singapore. Come July, Singapore Airlines will launch non-stop flights from Singapore to Dusseldorf.

The Government will also be increasing support for local industry players through the Business Events in Singapore fund.

For example, support can be given to a MICE (meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions) venue, a destination management company and a cluster of hotels working together to hold an event here.

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