The Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology industries, and to keep track of developments in these sectors as the green shoots of recovery slowly take root.
STB keeps Singapore in the minds of Indian traveller until they can travel again
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has joined hands with India-based social travel platform Tripoto to launch a microsite within its website as part of the tourism board’s efforts to make sure Indian travellers have Singapore in mind, whenever they start to travel again.
The content of the microsite, which is a one-stop guide for Indian travellers, encourages potential travellers to “Rediscover Now, Travel Later” with numerous activities in the joint programme with STB.
The ‘Singapore@Home’ section invites the audience to ‘virtually’ explore the numerous attractions in the city state by transporting them to attractions like Sentosa Island, Littte India, Chinatown, Gardens by the Bay or The Jewel. They can also join in a homeware makeover or learn to make a cocktail.
The ‘Fun@Home’ section is for children and the young-at-heart where they can take part is interactive games with Merli, a character illustration of Merlion, Singapore’s famous tourism icon. Or aspiring chefs can learn to cook some of Singapore’s signature dishes, or just go on a virtual food tour to ‘taste’ famous Singapore fare like chilli crab or Hainanese chicken rice.
The microsite also showcases how tourism businesses in Singapore are preparing to welcome back business and embracing the SG Clean certification programme, as well a link to STB’s website with its latest Covid-19 travel information and advisory.
“Although travel restrictions are still in place, it is important for destination brands to continue with engaging consumers creatively and staying connected,” commented GB Srithar, STB regional director – India, Middle East & South Asia
“Over the last few years the STB has increasingly used digital marketing in our destination promotion efforts. We are happy to collaborate on this endeavour – a first of its kind microsite by a national tourism organisation on the Tripoto’s platform. ”
Michael Pargal Lyngdoh, co-founder at Tripoto, said the company is “excited” to partner with STB again to plan for future holidays when travel restrictions are lifted.
Tripoto and STB first came together in April last year to create a seven-episode web series, ‘Trails 2 Passion-Singapore Redefined’, which showcased the experiential exploration of Singapore by actors Naveen Kasturia and Veer Rajwant Singh.
Flight Centre buys Whereto to simplify travel planning for corporations
Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has acquired San Francisco-based WhereTo, an enterprise travel platform and technology company that simplifies and improves business travel planning for corporations.
WhereTo pulls in content from dozens of sources and uses artificial intelligence-based algorithms to quickly guide users to the optimal trip options within policy, factoring in criteria like traffic conditions, travel deals, and personal preferences.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. WhereTo will continue business as usual with its current client base and fulfilment partners, said FCTG when announcing the acquisition.
The travel management company plans to integrate the WhereTo offering into products and services offered across both its Corporate Traveler and FCM Travel Solutions brands globally. It also views the partnership as “a critical step in building a customer experience from the ground up that can handle an increasingly complex distribution environment.”
Commenting on the deal Bertrand Saillet, managing director for FCM Travel Solutions in Asia, said: “WhereTo not only supports FCTG’s efforts to advance and scale the corporate travel business, it enables us to address a wider range of customer needs post pandemic.
“Its capabilities and specialisation complements and champions the same values we have, and that is to provide corporate customers with best-in-class technology tools that are simple, personalised, accurate and efficient at the same time.
FCTG chief experience officer John Morhous noted that the Covid-19 pandemic “has heightened the need to provide our customers with an advanced digital platform that accentuates the blended service model.”
Leveraging the WhereTo technology within FCTG’s existing products will “help expose the complex duty of care requirements we’ll be facing as global travel restrictions are lifted,” he added.
This acquisition is the latest of several other technology-based businesses that FCTG has acquired or invested since the beginning of the year, including TPConnects and Shep Travel.
IATA’s new health checklist assists airlines to operate safely during the pandemic
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released an airline self-assessment health checklist to help operators implement health and safety requirements.
The checklist is to support the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Take-off: Guidance for Air Travel through the Covid-19 Public Health Crisis, the global standard framework of risk-based temporary measures for governments and the air transport value chain to operate safely during the pandemic.
“Safety is always the number one priority for air transport. And the challenges of Covid-19 have added a new dimension to our efforts,” said IATA’s director general and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac.
“Developed with input from industry, public health authorities and governments, ICAO’s Take-off guidance is the global standard for safe operations. IATA’s self-assessment checklist is a practical implementation guide to help airlines comply.”
ICAO’s council president, Salvatore Sciacchitano, remarked that a “harmonised approach to health is key not only to the recovery of civil aviation but also to ‘building back better,’ which is crucially important to ensuring the future resilience of the aviation network.”
He added that IATA’s health checklist for airlines would provide momentum for the implementation of the ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) recommendations whose guiding principle are harmonisation and resilience.
The detailed IATA health checklist provides the standards and recommended practices (IHSARPs), associated guidance material and other supporting information necessary for an operator to self-assess.
Sections cover pre-arrival notification, check in, embarkation and disembarkation, aircraft cleaning, onboard air quality, inflight operations, flight and cabin Crew (general), crew layover and airport facilities.
The checklist is available for download here (30-page PDF), and can be used free of charge by interested airlines.
• Featured image credit: (Supertree Grove & OCBC Skyway @ Gardens by the Bay, Singapore): Corinne Wan