“Everything that standardises and removes friction is desperately needed,” says Fernandes of ASEAN travel
Budget airline airasia is sharing its tech know-how and featuring Singapore’s tourist offerings on the airasia Super App to help boost travel to Singapore from key regional markets in South-east Asia.
The airline has formed a “strategic and symbolic partnership” with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to jointly promote the city-state, sealed in Singapore on Wednesday, February 16, with the inking of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Signing the MoU to signal a new era in partnership to woo regional tourists to the city-state are Singapore Tourism Board’s Keith Tan (right) and Capital A’s Tony Fernandes (Image credit: Singapore Tourism Board)
Both parties viewed the collaboration as a vital step to reignite the tourism industry, not only in Singapore but South-east Asia too.
“Singapore is an incredibly important market to airasia, but now it’s taken up a different field with our super app. And in this instance we’re thrilled to be working with the Singapore Tourism Board, not only on airasia flights but through our super app promoting other airlines to fly into Singapore,” explained Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A (formerly AirAsia Group).
Keith Tan said as Singapore is “eager” to welcome international visitors to experience its new refreshed offerings as part of the SingapoReimagine tourism campaign, and it is prepared to collaborate with a wide variety of industry partners, such as Capital A and airasia, to bolster the city-state’s appeal as a destination.
airasia is an ideal partner as it has a “very strong brand presence, very strong network and very strong levels of recognition in our key markets in this region,” he added.
Additionally the super app – the airline’s one-stop digital travel and lifestyle services platform – is highlighting tourist offerings and experiences in Singapore as part of the deal, making them discoverable and bookable for travellers planning to visit Singapore.
Both parties will also work together to pilot digital solutions to enhance the visitor experience in Singapore as well as exchange knowledge, such as traveller spending patterns, that will deepen their understanding of travellers from South-east Asia markets. They will also launch joint marketing campaign and content partnerships as part of the deal .
Capital A’s Fernandes said the main goal is to bring more people to Singapore on airasia’s aircraft. He, however, stressed it is not just selling airasia inventory but selling many other airlines, hotels and attractions in Singapore as well.
“So the main aim is to promote Singapore as a tourist destination, but for us we have a role to alert the world that apart from buying airasia inventory you can now buy inventory of other airlines and hotels plus other tourist attractions.”
The sharing of data insights will also make promotions more targeted and personalised for the customers.
Fernandes revealed the company has a new product called SNAP that changes the way people buy flights and hotels by using AI and personalisation. “When you select a destination, the hotel and the flight are chosen for you so you have less clicks and is much easier to buy.”
Thumbs up and smiles from Capital A’s Tony Fernandes (left) and Singapore Tourism Board’s Keith Tan at the sealing of the new partnership (Image credit: Singapore Tourism Board)
To make regional travel hassle-free and seamless, both Fernandes and Tan believe there should be some standardisation in the rules of entry as more countries are slowly opening their borders. Presently, each country has its own set of rules and pacing, confusing travellers eager to explore South-east Asia.
“Everything that standardises and removes friction is desperately needed. We see every country having different policies and inconsistencies, and I hope ASEAN has one policy within the 10 member countries. airasia, along with other airlines, has created an ASEAN market that didn’t exist maybe 20 years ago, and it’s a very big market. It’s important that ASEAN has one standard going forward,” said Fernandes.
In agreement, Tan said one of the key enablers for the rebound in regional travel would be some degree of harmonisation of health protocols in ASEAN as is seen in other tightly integrated regions like Europe.
“However, we recognise the limitations and every country has every right to dictate and to determine its own border and healthcare policies. Different countries in ASEAN will have different risk appetites and, therefore, this will result in different degrees of health protocols. Singapore may look at the situation differently from Thailand or Vietnam or the Philippines.”
He is of the view that even if harmonisation of protocols is one step too far, then perhaps something can be done to make the different protocols more easily understandable and discoverable by travellers from both outside and within the region.
“I think that is a useful first step that we ought to be working towards. And then after that, some degree of harmonisation, maybe not across all 10 ASEAN member states, but at least between some of the key member states. We then can grow that in the future”.
Despite launching the partnership amid the spike in Covid infections due to the Omicron variant, the STB chief is hopeful to see more visitors to Singapore from the regional markets in the coming months. He believes the Omicron spike is “time bound” – it will peak and will go down.
“So it is important for us to start building demand for travel now. You can’t wait for Omicron to die down before we start making plans for recovery. That would be too slow and too late. That’s why we already have Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) with several ASEAN countries, and we hope to build on that.”
Coincidentally, on the same day as the AirAsia-STB event, Singapore’s ministry of health announced a new VTL with Hong Kong and other regions. The previously deferred VTLs with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will also restart. The first VTL flights from these places will take place from February 25.
Good news indeed for both STB and the tourism sector in Singapore.