STB ties up with Chinese sites to draw travellers

SINGAPORE — With Chinese travellers increasingly mobile-savvy and turning away from travelling on prepackaged tours, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is partnering with four Chinese digital media platforms to put information about the Republic’s sights and sounds at their fingertips.

A user of the various platforms could be matched to suggested itineraries customised to their user preference. While in Singapore, they could log into a mobile application to help them find their way around or find out more about the sights in their vicinity, and share experiences more easily after returning home.

The STB today (Oct 21) inked four Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with travel services websites Alitrip and Tuniu — similar to sites such as expedia — and social review sites Dianping and Mafengwo, the Chinese equivalent of sites such as TripAdvisor. Singapore is believed to be the first to forge such collaborations with the Chinese digital players.

STB also launched a new Your­Singapore WeChat Service account and Baidu Connect service for Chinese visitors to explore Singapore through their mobile phone. River Safari and Gardens by the Bay will be featured on the WeChat platform, and plans are afoot to include Chinatown, Singapore Zoo and Orchard Road by March next year. Information on the Sentosa-HarbourFront precinct, meanwhile, will be on Baidu Connect. These applications, tourists can, for instance, check out peer reviews of attractions to plan their day, or use the maps function for to create a virtual guide.

China remains a key market for the Singapore tourism sector, being the second-largest source of visitors and tourism receipts last year. Arrivals from China dropped sharply by 24.1 per cent last year, but there has been a resurgence of late, with the number in the first eight months of the year rising 19.3 per cent from the same period last year.

The STB said there has been a shift towards independent travel among the Chinese, with close to two-thirds indicating they prefer to travel in small groups and on their own. Data from a social media agency also showed that close to 90 per cent of China’s Internet users use their mobile phones for payments and soliciting information, instead of desktop computers.

Speaking at the MOU signing today, STB chief executive Lionel Yeo said: “China’s digital travel landscape is a world in its own, in fact a parallel universe to what’s offered in the West … What works for our other markets may not be relevant for the Chinese market.”

The partnerships resulting from the MOUs include working with Alitrip to develop a microsite for Singapore, and co-develop travel packages and understand visitor trends. For Mafengwo and Dianping, which have more than 80 million and 200 million users, respectively, STB will be pushing curated content onto these social review sites, such as on local delicacies.

Sentosa HarbourFront Business Association chairman Khoo Shao Tze said besides travellers, tour agents can also tap these STB initiatives to obtain more information in Singapore to tailor tour packages for their clients.

Gardens by the Bay business development director Darren Oh said as tourist information on the Gardens changes often because of seasons and events, the online platforms will allow them to constantly push out updated content.

STB regional director (Greater China) Edward Chew added that these latest digital initiatives are aimed at not only sustaining tourist arrivals, but also to improve visitors’ experience.

“If you get a lot of people that come to Singapore, but they don’t have a good time, you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. And if you only have people having a good time in Singapore, but we don’t shout about it, then we waste that opportunity,” he said.