SingapoRediscovers voucher: Travel firms appreciate it, but some say it has not boosted shrinking revenue

• Travel operators said they appreciated the intent of the SingapoRediscovers voucher
• However, not all operators have seen an uptick in local tours
• One operator said the process of utilising the vouchers could have been simpler

SINGAPORE — When the SingapoRediscovers voucher was first announced last year to help companies in the travel industry ride out the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Stanley Foo did not expect it to have much of an impact.

To his surprise, the founder and managing partner at Oriental Travel and Tours found himself dealing with the “happy problem” of having to manage the overwhelming response to his company’s ghoulishly-themed walking tours in Singapore.

Meanwhile, travel-based social enterprise Actxplorer said it only managed to earn a fraction of its pre-Covid projections for 2020, even with the voucher’s introduction.

Since the scheme was introduced in August last year, merchants in the travel industry that TODAY spoke to have seen mixed results.

The Government had announced then that it would set aside S$320 million for the voucher, which can be used from Dec 1, 2020 to the end of June this year on staycations, attraction tickets and local tours.

The voucher — worth S$100 per person and redeemable from booking platforms Changi Recommends, GlobalTix, Klook, Traveloka and Trip.com — was named after an ongoing S$45 million marketing campaign by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to drive domestic spending and support the tourism sector which has been decimated by the coronavirus.

Over 760,000 adult Singaporeans have redeemed their SingapoRediscovers vouchers at least once by March 28, but another 2.2 million have yet to do so, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a written parliamentary reply on Monday (April 5).

Mr Chan said there are no plans to extend the deadline beyond June 30 for now.

MAXED OUT TOURS

Tour operators that TODAY spoke to were appreciative of the scheme’s intent for helping defray their operational costs.

Still, only two of the five tour operators interviewed said it made a significant difference to their business.

Mr Foo, whose company specialises in local tours, said he initially did not think that Singaporeans would be interested in attending walking tours in their own country.

His assumptions were proven wrong. “We saw so many orders that our tours were just maxed out,” said the 45-year-old, who chalked up the positive response to his company’s offerings.

Rather than generic walking tours of a particular precinct, Oriental Travel & Tours offers themed excursions. Their best-selling tour is Creepy Tales in Singapore, a four-hour-long exploration of “spooky” places such as cemeteries.

During the first few months of the voucher’s launch, Mr Foo said about 95 per cent of his tours were booked with it. Now, about 30 to 40 per cent are paid for in cash — an indication that Singaporeans are willing to pay for local tours after using up their vouchers, he said.

While he did not provide any figures, Mr Foo said profit-wise, his company is doing much better than even before the pandemic.

Mr Colin Goh, the head chef and experience manager at Let’s Go Cook Singapore, related a similar experience.

The 38-year-old, who offers cooking tours, credited the voucher for packing his days with back-to-back tours.

The company, which originally catered to expatriates, found that locals of all ages appreciate learning more about Singapore’s food culture.

“Every single month, we were hitting new (revenue) targets for our tours,” he said. “It was a breakthrough for us.”

TOUGH FOR SOME

The situation, however, was not the same for operators that were previously focusing on overseas tours.

Actxplorer’s business development manager Jeremy Lee said it was difficult to suddenly pivot to providing local tours, when they were previously organising overseas trips.

Today, their tours include a visit to a traditional coffee roastery and a tour of Pulau Ubin and its surrounding areas.

Describing how Covid-19 has affected Actxplorer, Mr Lee said that before the pandemic last year, the company initially projected to make S$5 million in revenue for the year based on confirmed sales. It ended up taking in less than S$50,000.

The 30-year-old said they have earned less than S$15,000 from the voucher.

“It’s been tough for us, and we have to look for other forms of income,” said Mr Lee, who now sells sparkling water-makers on the side.

Mr Yeo Ching Khee, the 52-year-old director of the adventure travel company X-Trekkers, took on a secondary job as a safe distancing ambassador as they were just not getting enough customers to join their nature-related tours in Singapore through the voucher.

For others such as sightseeing company Timesworld Travel and Educational Tours, the voucher may have boosted the number of people signing up for their various offerings, but it is not enough to cover overheads.

Currently, their tours include, among others, an exploration of mangroves on a kayak, farm tours and a day-tour of Sentosa with a staycation thrown in.

The company’s director, Mr Wilson Chua, said the month of December saw some 400 registrations, which later fell to an average of about 300 per month in January and February. Since March, it has picked up and he said so far, they have received more than 1,000 registrations for April.

The 50-year-old reckons that the surge this month is likely due to impending expiry of the voucher, and people are rushing to use it up.

Yet, he said the company has been barely able to cover 50 per cent of its overheads.

As a result, they have been dipping into 23 years’ worth of savings and utilising SkillFuture Singapore’s Absentee Payroll Funding scheme to send staff for training and offset manpower costs.

TROUBLESOME REDEMPTION

Although there is still a substantial number of Singaporeans who have yet to use their vouchers, the merchants believe it is partially due to the complexities of using them, as they recalled how their staff would have to spend time helping less-tech savvy clients.

The voucher can only be redeemed online, and this requires Singaporeans to log into their SingPass accounts.

Mr Chua said some elderly customers cannot even remember their passwords, and his staff could spend more than 20 minutes just sorting through these administrative issues for them.

“If somebody helps them, they will be happy. If not, they’ll just say it is troublesome and that they don’t want to use it,” said Mr Chua.

The tourism board’s chief executive officer Keith Tan told reporters at a recent industry conference that “there are no plans to change the fundamental mechanics of the scheme” as it was designed to be a digital-only process.

With just a few months to go before the voucher’s redemption period ends, the merchants said they hope to attract more customers by ramping up their marketing efforts and maybe even create new tours.

Actxplorer’s Mr Lee said his company is even looking at ways to tie up with different beneficiaries so that Singaporeans who do not wish to use their vouchers can donate it to the needy.

One organisation that is already running such an initiative is ItsRainingCoats, which works to support the needs of migrant workers.

As of April 8, more than 6,200 Singaporeans have donated their vouchers to the organisation.