A campaign that is Indian consumer-centric, a constantly evolving tourism landscape, film and serial shoots - GB Srithar, Area Director, South Asia, Singapore Tourism Board tells us that these are just some of the ways through which The Lion City entices travellers to visit it again and again…
Q] How important is India as a market for the Singapore Tourism Board?
India has consistently emerged as one of the top five performing markets for Singapore in the last five years, in terms of international visitor arrivals and tourism receipts. Indian travellers contributed S$1.1 billion in terms of tourism receipts in 2011, which represented a 21% increase over 2010. In terms of tourism receipts (TR) contribution, India contributed 5% to the global TR and is the third most important market after Indonesia and China. The Indian travellers’ preferences have truly evolved; they are today more adventurous and seek much more out of their holidays.
Q] What is the focus of your on-going campaign for Indian travellers “The Holiday You Take Home With You”?
With the concept of experiential travel gaining popularity, globally we have adopted an experiential and consumer-centric marketing approach rather than a destination marketing approach. Following this principle of visitor centricity, Singapore launched its differentiated marketing campaign for India - ‘Singapore- The Holiday You Take Home with You’ last year highlighting Singapore’s exciting experiential offerings under the themes of gourmet pleasures, family fun, whirlwind romance and active lifestyle.
We launched the first burst of the marketing campaign in March last year, “Singapore – The Holiday You Take Home With You” bringing new and upcoming attractions into focus. The second burst in November focused on promoting the ‘Family Fun’ and ‘Romance’ experiences. The current third phase focuses on ‘City in a Garden’.
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy? What does your media mix look like? How important is the digital platform?
Our marketing mix comprises PR, advertising, digital and social media, print and magazines, road shows, and partnerships with travel agents. In future, we may look at TV and radio. We are open to promotion partnership campaigns with the broadcaster fraternity. ‘The Holiday You Take Home With You’ campaign is a major undertaking for STB in India and we will continue to build on this and reach out to travellers through various channels and partnerships. When we started our campaign, we deliberately kept it an online, social media platform as the online medium gives us a more targeted approach and launched the campaign we had a social media Facebook page contest. The marketing campaign includes online and mobile advertising, a dedicated India landing page on the Your Singapore destination website and social media engagement efforts and we buy out web banners in digital space.
Q] You have tied up with large travel agents and websites. How has this panned out and what are you currently doing in this space?
We partnered with four travel agents – Thomas Cook and Mercury Travels, Kuoni India and MakeMyTrip, with pan-India presence, to promote Singapore’s leisure offerings on print, digital and social media. Jointly, they drive consumer interest and facilitate Indian travellers’ trips to Singapore. We work out promotions with them so they are marketing Singapore in a way that we want them to market
Q] What is the USP of destination Singapore in relation to the other destinations?
We have capitalized on the need to constantly evolve and develop the tourism landscape, offering an ever changing slew of experiences to travellers. Attractions such as the Gardens by the Bay, Marine Life Park, River Safari, Mega zip Adventure Park are designed to offer enriching and fun experiences.
We continue to innovate and move up the value chain to stay relevant and competitive. STB also acknowledges that regional collaboration is needed to drive tourism to the region. In the next wave of development, we are looking to new growth areas like cruise, arts tourism, and adventure and sports tourism. Singapore is a safe and easy to enjoy destination; this attracts a lot of women travellers and you can personalize your holiday experience.
Q] From which state/region do you get the maximum traffic? Which regions/state are you looking at as potential target areas?
The majority of Indian visitor arrivals are from metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. These are our core key metros. We are looking at significant number of Indian travellers originating from cities such as Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Kochi and Chandigarh.
Q] Does your marketing strategy vary when targeting customers from Tier II and III cities?
Customers in the metros are repeat travellers who we try to keep informed on new attractions and developments in Singapore. For Tier II and Tier III cities, we try to educate the first time and potential leisure traveller about visiting Singapore. We may pick up some city specific approaches.
Q] Krish and more recently the Star Plus serial Diya aur Baati Hum were shot in Singapore and both were heavily promoted. How do these associations help promote tourism and what are the kinds incentives offered?
Singapore is a bustling cosmopolitan city and offers a unique backdrop for films, television and variety shows. Diya aur Baati Hum, the popular soap by Star Plus was shot here last year. We will continue to facilitate shoots and should the right opportunity come along we might be keen to host other shoots as well. Partnering with Star Plus and NDTV Good Times has allowed us to connect with a larger audience and give them a sense of the destination. These shows have a great fan following and such associations help raise the awareness and popularity of Singapore as a choice holiday destination. We are exploring and in discussions with a couple of other channels to shoot in Singapore. As in marketing, we are also approaching such film shoots with a consumer centric approach, and thus our incentive schemes cannot be one size fits all.
Q] Singapore is also known as a MICE destination. What is the response from Indian corporates and what factors help Singapore score over other MICE destination?
Attracting and anchoring a critical mass of business events here in Singapore continues to be a priority for us. Our efforts are focused on offering a vibrant business eco-system within which event organizers can co-create and develop a strong pipeline of quality events that feature new, relevant and original content. In addition, Singapore works closely with industry associations to create and attract events to Singapore. Besides strategic partnerships, Singapore also helps connect industry trade associations with the relevant and appropriate government agencies to help facilitate the organisation of shows in Singapore.
Q] What are the challenges faced in the Indian market?
Singapore seems to be a known product so we need to re-introduce our new offerings. The other challenge is that a lot of new choices and destinations have opened up for Indian travellers to consider.
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