Singapore plans marketing drive to lure tourists
Singapore plans marketing drive to lure tourists
SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore plans a marketing assault to lure
foreign tourists after welcoming a record 7.29 million visitors
last year, a 2.2-percent increase over 1995, officials said
yesterday.
"We'll be initiating and spreading a Singapore fever,"
Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) chief executive Tan Chin
Nam told reporters, projecting growth in 1997 arrivals at 3.0-to-
5.0 percent.
He said a "focused, creative and impactful" campaign to market
Singapore as a tourist destination and a gateway to regional
attractions would be launched in key markets beginning with
Japan.
Tan said Singapore aimed to "enhance our attractiveness, the
hardware, the software, quality of experience and quality of
service" to offer an enriching and eventful experience for
holiday-makers and draw repeat visitors.
"We are now competing in the international league of world-
class destinations," he said.
"It cannot be a situation of more of the same. Otherwise
people will get tired of us. This is a very challenging task
ahead of us," he said.
The STPB plans to encourage more "two-way" tourism with
neighbors as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which groups Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
Tan said links with regional destinations would be stepped up
to make this tiny city-state a "multi-destinational" tourism
gateway.
Big retail sales, food festivals and other cultural
celebrations here will be topped off with a "gourmets' summit"
gathering the world's best chefs.
Singapore hopes to draw 10 million visitors annually and
generate more than US$11 billion in tourism revenue by 2000, and
plans to spend more than $200 million for its international
tourism marketing campaign in the next five years.
The plans come amid rising regional competition for tourist
dollars.
Singapore has so far outperformed much larger neighbors in the
tourist trade despite their superior natural attractions, but is
maturing as a destination.
Its image as a shoppers' paradise has been eroded by high
prices, no thanks to the strong Singapore dollar, and rival
retail meccas like Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok. Average
length of stay and per-capita tourist spending have been falling.
The 1996 arrivals -- more than twice the population of this
tiny island state -- fell short of the 3.0-to-5.0 growth target
set at the start of the year. In 1995, it greeted 7.14 million
visitors, a 3.5-percent annual increase.
Japan maintained its position as the city-state's top tourism
market in 1996 but posted a 0.6-percent decline in arrivals to
1.17 million, the STPB said.
Tan blamed the dip on a diversion of Japanese tourists to Hong
Kong ahead of the territory's handover to Chinese rule on July 1,
and also cited competition from Malaysia and Indonesia.
But "we have to ask ourselves whether Singapore is still
attractive to Japanese visitors," the official said.
The number of visitors from Indonesia grew 1.2 percent to 1.06
million and Malaysia 2.9 percent to 700,748.
Arrivals from Taiwan and Thailand declined by 6.2 percent to
528,485 and 1. 8 percent to 252,572 respectively. The number of
visitors from South Korea rose 9.5 percent to 384,509, Hong
Kong's numbers climbed 3.1 percent to 288, 560 and Australia's
numbers were up 1.4 percent at 351,487.
Preliminary figures showed that the average hotel occupancy
rate fell by 1. 9 percentage points from 1995 to 82.2 percent in
1996. The decline was attributed to a 5.8-percent increase in the
number of hotel rooms to 29,500.