STB aims to attract visitors with niche interests
By Vimita Mohandas |
Posted: 29 March 2013 2002 hrs
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STB aims to attract visitors with niche interests
SINGAPORE: Positioning Singapore as a tourist destination to cater to the niche interests of visitors is a key priority for the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) this year.
This was revealed by its new CEO Lionel Yeo in his first exclusive interview with Channel NewsAsia after helming the company for some 10 months.
The STB forecasts 2013 tourism receipts to be in the range of about S$23.5 billion to S$24.5 billion.
This is an increase of about 2.2 per cent to 6.5 per cent from last year.
And with attractions such as the River Safari in the pipeline, STB is confident it will continue to draw visitors to Singapore.
Despite this, STB will be pursuing a yield strategy to cater to travellers looking for a more differentiated and value-added experience.
CEO Lionel Yeo said: “It would be people who appreciate the range of dining options that we have in Singapore – high-end dining options as well as unique local flavours. It would be travellers who appreciate our range of retail offerings. It would be travellers who stay at our very nice hotel offerings.”
STB’s focus will be on business and leisure travellers.
Mr Yeo said: “We see opportunities to get more business travel to Singapore, which will leverage on the facilities and infrastructure that we already have.
“So it might be a CEO who wants to bring his entire senior team here for a corporate retreat or a learning seminar with faculty members with our world-class tertiary institutions here.
What we need to do for leisure (travel) is to throw our marketing efforts in key markets. We need to ensure that we attract the more discerning travellers who are looking for more unique experiences and they are prepared to pay for it as opposed to more of a mass market where they are just here to have a quick look at what Singapore is about.”
However, he added that manpower will remain a challenge.
Mr Yeo said: “The first thing to acknowledge is there is growth. The challenge for us then is: how do we secure this growth? And we will need to secure this growth in a new and innovative way, because we cannot be adding more labour to the business model in order to secure this growth.
“We need to evolve a new business model. We need to focus on productivity so that we get more per worker. At the same time, companies need to re-orientate their business model in order to cater to that growth.”
STB says it will be working closely with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and industry associations to find new ways to cope with the manpower challenges.
- CNA/ir
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STB aims to attract visitors with niche interests
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