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.