Singapore Tourism Board ramps up recovery initiatives with travel trade partners

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) rolled out ambitious plans to make
the city-state an even more desirable destination for Indian visitors in 2023 at South Asia’s leading travel trade event, SATTE, as it aims to build on last year’s post-pandemic travel rebound.

This comes in along with announcement by the Indian government of removing all RTPCR
requirements, in addition to all covid restrictions being lifted, for Indian travellers returning
from Singapore with effect from 13th February 2023, 11 am. This shall further facilitate fuss-free travel for Indian visitors to Singapore.

Travel from India to Singapore has picked up pace since April 2022 with the 1 greater easing
of travel restrictions. India accounted for 686,000 of the overall 6.3 million global visitor
arrivals in 2022, emerging as Singapore’s second-largest source market after Indonesia (1.1
million visitors). With direct flight connectivity between Singapore and 17 Indian cities 2 ,
Singapore is poised to tap into the burgeoning travel demand from across the country.
Built around the theme ‘Ramping up Pathways to Recovery, Together!’, the STB’s vision for
2023 and the coming years include a focus on positioning Singapore as a destination that
offers rewarding travel experience to Indian travellers by broadening its appeal, both to a
wider Indian demographic which includes young Indian travellers, and as an aspirational
destination to celebrate life milestones such as weddings and anniversaries. STB will also
sharpen its offerings in its family segment, Meetings and Incentive travel, and cruise tourism
strongholds.

GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East, South Asia and Africa, said, “A total of 48
Singapore travel industry partners are exhibiting at the Singapore Pavilion at SATTE 2023,
making this Singapore’s biggest ever presence at SATTE. India has long been one of
Singapore’s largest tourism source markets, and is only set to become even more important
in 2023, bolstered by a strong recovery in 2022 of close to 50% of the visitor arrivals
achieved in 2019. The year ahead in Singapore is exciting, with hotly-anticipated tourism
developments and we invite many more Indians with different passion points, travel desires,
and aspirations to enjoy our diverse, vibrant, and reimagined offerings.”

The Singapore Pavilion showcases new attractions, initiatives and focus areas STB is
working on. Upcoming tourism developments that will be launched in 2023 include
Sentosa’s multi-concept family development and Sensoryscape experiential park, as well as

Mandai Wildlife Reserve’s Bird Paradise. These developments are expected to further anchor
Singapore’s destination attractiveness to travellers from all across India.

Alongside SATTE 2023, STB has lined up a series of trade outreach activities across India,
which includes a B2B networking platform in Chennai on 13 February, and two wedding
networking engagements with 35 top wedding planners in partnership with WeddingSutra on
7 and 8 February in Mumbai and Delhi respectively.

Singapore, over the last few decades, has established itself as a global business and leisure
hub. It offers visitors a mix of eclectic experiences. Visitors can take in live sports, arts,
entertainment, or a wildlife safari, indulge themselves in delectable cuisines that are
reflective of Singapore’s cultural diversity, or engage in thrill-seeking adventure exploits.
Singapore is increasingly also emerging as a wellness destination, with a whole host of
emotional and physical well-being experiences on offer. At the same time, it takes the lead in
pioneering sustainable tourism, with its ‘City in Nature’ vision a key pillar of the Singapore
Green Plan 2030.