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New body to boost HarbourFront, Sentosa tourism

SINGAPORE — Fourteen businesses and stakeholders from the Sentosa and HarbourFront precinct have come together to form an association that aims to boost the area’s tourism business and promote it as the region’s preferred leisure, lifestyle and resort destination.

SINGAPORE — Fourteen businesses and stakeholders from the Sentosa and HarbourFront precinct have come together to form an association that aims to boost the area’s tourism business and promote it as the region’s preferred leisure, lifestyle and resort destination.

Launched by Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran yesterday, the Sentosa HarbourFront Business Association (SHBA) has pledged S$3 million to market the precinct through joint promotions, events and campaigns in the next three to five years.

Resorts World Sentosa is the current secretariat for the association and will fund half the amount pledged.

Mr Iswaran, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, has urged the SHBA to promote the area as a preferred Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) destination in the region.

The association is targeting a 20-per-cent increase in the number of MICE visitors by 2016.

Mr Iswaran said there were a few areas where its efforts can have a tangible impact in promoting the precinct.

“One of those areas is joint promotion marketing, especially in a very competitive space like MICE, because if you talk about MICE events, the competition is international.

“So, if (the businesses and stakeholders) are able to come together, rather than individual hotel properties or individual facilities, but ... as a precinct and market themselves, I think it will be a lot more appealing ... and I think they will be able to compete pretty well in the global market,” he said.

He added that the SHBA can look into developing precinct-wide content that can help differentiate it from competitors.

The minister said the association can also make a difference in the area of staff training and development. There is potential for collaboration that will allow members to take advantage of economies of scale, he added.

For its first signature event in April next year, the SHBA plans to hold a precinct-wide Easter celebration to inject more vibrancy into the area. Promotional activities will be held and decorations put up across all properties.

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