From catering to high-end travellers to revamping Kranji racecourse, Singapore plans to reinvent tourism sector

SINGAPORE — Getting workers in the tourism sector to go for retraining, redesigning Singapore’s tourism offerings to cater to a niche market of high-quality travellers, and developing the northwestern part of Singapore into a green space. 

These are some of the short- to long-term plans that the Government has in mind to help the country’s tourism sector cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. 

Speaking at a virtual industry dialogue on Wednesday (July 22), Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said that demand for mass market tourism will not resume anytime soon unless a vaccine to treat Covid-19 or rapid and affordable test kits are developed. 

Government support measures through the form of wage subsidies and rental waivers may have helped to buy some time, but these cannot go on indefinitely, he added.

“It is not sustainable for us to keep supporting a business model that may no longer be available or at least will not come back within the next one, two years. Then, within this time, we must quickly spend the resources to help our businesses reimagine the product to get onto a new market,” he said in response to a question from industry participants at the dialogue. 

With the decimation of international travel amid the pandemic, the tourism sector is likely to be in the doldrums in the months ahead. 

Mr Chan said that the market will first resume with higher-quality travellers first. Hence, tourism businesses need to rethink its products and services to cater to quality, niche market services beyond the traditional mass market ones. 

Charting out how Singapore’s tourism sector can overcome the biggest challenge that it has ever seen, Mr Chan laid out three broad strategies that caters to the short-term, medium-term and long-term challenges. 

The short-term plan is already in motion, he said, with several government support measures in place.

As for the medium-term, businesses need to pivot their marketing and offerings to high-end consumers, targeting essential business travellers that are coming in through green-lane arrangements, and also residents here. 

This is the basis of a new project by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), along with trade agency Enterprise Singapore and Sentosa Development Corporation, which manages Sentosa Island, as they launched a domestic tourism campaign called SingapoRediscover on Wednesday ploughing S$45 million into efforts to revive tourism activities. 

Mr Chan also said that the Government is still committed to execute long-term plans for the tourism industry. 

This includes the integrated tourism development for Jurong Lake District. STB aims to launch a request for proposals for this new attraction by the end of this year. 

He also said that STB is exploring the redevelopment of the Singapore Racecourse at Kranji.

The racecourse, which is a venue for horse racing, sits between Sungei Buloh nature reserve on the north-western corner of Singapore and the Mandai nature reserve further inland.

Its redevelopment could lead to an “entirely new tourist proposition” for both Singaporeans and foreigners residing here, Mr Chan said.