In the news: Singapore Tourism Board 2016 Year-in- Review, Qantas’ inflight WiFi streaming, Travelport’s expanded relationship with hutchgo.com and Avis Budget Group
DESTINATION: SINGAPORE TOURISM ENDS 2016 ON A HIGH NOTE
Shopping contributed to rise in Singapore tourism receipts. (Image credit: iTkKurikawa/iStock)
The year 2016 was a good one for Singapore’s tourism sector as both visitor arrivals and tourism receipts exceeded forecasts to hit historical highs in 2016.
Visitor arrivals grew by 7.7% to 16.4 million, while tourism receipts rose even higher by 13.9% to S$24.8 billion (US$17.4 billion).
“The strong tourism receipt results came on the back of visitors spending more on food and beverage, shopping and accommodation, said Singapore Tourism Board (STB) when releasing its Year-In-Review 2016 (read full PDF presentation below).
The top growth markets were China (+36%), Indonesia (+6%), and India (+8%) due to STB’s intensified marketing efforts in tier 1 and tier 2 cities in these countries. India overtook Australia to become Singapore’s fourth largest source market for visitor arrivals.
However, the city-state saw the largest declines in visitor arrivals from Hong Kong (-12%), Malaysia (-2%), Australia (-2%), South Korea (-2%) and Japan (-1%).
STB explained the decline for Hong Kong was its weaker economic performance, while Malaysia’s depreciating ringgit dampened travel to Singapore. For Western Australia, travel sentiment was affected by its slowing mining industry coupled with drop in stopover traffic enroute to Europe. For Japan and South Korea it was news of Singapore’s Zika outbreak that kept their nationals away.
BUSINESS TOURISM
The NTO also paid special attention to business tourism, lending support to 52 technology-related projects through the Business Improvement Fund and the Experience Step-Up Fund.
STB also supported more than 410 business events last year, a 15% year-on-year growth. These events led to 343,000 visitor arrivals and generated approximately S$611 million in tourism receipts, a 20% and 28% increase year-on-year respectively.
CRUISES
Singapore places importance to the cruise industry, and has won numerous industry accolades as a cruise destination. Last year it recorded a 16% to about 1.2 million and welcomed 10 maiden calls.
DIGITAL MARKETING
STB believes forming partnership with big tech players is the way forward in this age of technology. In 2015 it partnered Chinese OTA Tuniu and Ctrip to launch a marketing campaign, “新有灵犀 从心发现”, in Chinese cities. It led to positive results last year – 99,200 mono-Singapore packages sold by Tuniu, a 52% year-to-year increase to over 2015.
The board also curated content on Singapore’s tourism offerings for easy access on various digital platforms across China such as WeChat, Tencent, Dianping and Mafengwo. Over 120,000 “Your Singapore” audio guides have been downloaded by Chinese visitors within the year.
NEW ATTRACTIONS
New attractions and lifestyle offerings are added regularly to enhance the destination’s atrractiveness. They include KidZania Singapore, Future World at ArtScience Museum (Marina Bay Sands), COMO Dempsey and the introduction of the Michelin Guide Singapore, as well as rejuvenated tourism offerings like the Chinatown Heritage Centre and the relocated Zouk at Clarke Quay.
“We are heartened by the strong tourism sector performance in 2016. Despite challenges such as weaker economic performance in some of Singapore’s top source markets and a Zika virus outbreak, Singapore has managed to attract more quality visitors to contribute to economic growth,” said STB’s chief executive Lionel Yeo.
Looking ahead in 2017, STB sees impact from global economic and political uncertainties as well as increasing regional competition for tourism dollars. However, it forecasts tourism receipts to be in the range of $25.1 to $25.8 billion (+1 to 4%) and international visitor arrivals to be in the range of 16.4-16.7 million (+2%).
• View the full PDF presentation: Singapore Tourism Board Year-in-Review 2016
AIRLINES: NOW YOU CAN WATCH YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIES AND SPORTS ON BOARD QANTAS
Watching movies and listening to music soon on Qantas flights (Image credit: Christopher Ames/iStock)
Passengers on Qantas WiFi-enabled domestic flights will be able access content from Netflix, Foxtel and Spotify on their devices starting late February.
The airline claims that with speeds, which are 10 times faster than conventional inflight WiFi, it is able to offer customers video and audio streaming when the (WiFi) service is switched on its first domestic aircraft later this month.
According to Qantas, the faster connection speeds are made possible through the nbn Sky Muster satellite service with the signal reaching the aircraft as it flies through the satellite’s 101 spot beams across Australia.
Last November Qantas installed the first ViaSat equipment on its first Boeing 737 aircraft. The service will be extended to the rest of the airline’s fleet of domestic Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 aircraft from the middle of this year.
The airline is in talks with suppliers to extend WiFi services to its international and regional flights.
Both Spotify and Netflix offer a 30-day free trial for customers but they have to sign up to a subscription to access the content. Foxtel grants three days free access and no sign up to a subscription is required (the inflight WIFi is free).
Qantas group executive of brand, marketing and corporate affairs, Olivia Wirth, said that fast, free Internet would open up a huge range of options for customers inflight.
“We know that email, online shopping and general web browsing will be popular uses when we switch on WiFi, but what a lot of people relish about flying is being able to catch up on their favourite TV shows or watch movies they didn’t get to see at the cinema.”
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: HUTCHGO.COM, AVIS BUDGET GROUP EXTEND PARTNERSHIP WITH TRAVELPORT
New deals between Travelport, hutchgo.com and Avis Budget Group (Image credit: Alliya23/iStock)
Travelport announced this week it has gained extension of its agreements with hutchgo.com and Avis Budget Group.
hutchgo.com, which has been a technology partner with Travelport since 2015, expanded its agreement with the travel commerce platform to aid in its expansion.
Tony Ma, CEO of hutchgo.com, said Travelport has “proven to be a highly valued technology partner” and the company is “broadening the scope of the agreement to cover the company’s expansion into key regions in Asia and into the UK.”
The new agreement sees Travelport become the OTA’s preferred technology partner in key growth regions including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
Travelport will power hutchgo.com’s online reservations enabling the OTA’s customers to search, book, and purchase travel content and access fares and ancillaries through its technology.
In a related development, Avis Budget Group also extended its relationship with Travelport through the inking of a new, multi-year partnership agreement.
The new deal gives Avis Budget Group continued access to Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform to showcase its available vehicle inventory and ancillary products for its portfolio of brands. These include Avis Car Rental, Budget Car Rental, Payless Car Rental, Apex Car Rentals and Maggiore.
Scott Deaver, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Avis Budget Group said: “Showcasing our products and services on their Travel Commerce Platform gives travellers more choice and flexibility when booking car rental and provides a great opportunity for us to accelerate growth.”
• Featured image credit (Singapore skyline): ronniechua/iStock