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With the resumption of regular international flight operations in India coinciding with summer holiday season coupled with a huge pent up demand for outbound travel, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is expecting a huge uptick in Indian tourist arrivals this year.
“Indian consumers consider Singapore as a very popular and favourite family destination. Through travel, trade and airlines feedback, we know that there is a pent up travel demand and Singapore is one of the top-of-mind destinations for a lot of Indian travellers,” GB Srithar, Regional Director- India, Middle East & South Asia (IMESA), STB told BusinessLine.
“Also, the opening up of international flight travel is setting up nicely for the big summer holiday season, which typically starts in April and extends up to July,” he added.
The Indian Government last week announced the resumption of regular international flight operations from March 27, two years after it was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, the Singapore Government also announced the extension of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) to all Indian cities. Launched in November 2021, VTL allows quarantine-free travel to Singapore for fully vaccinated travellers. It was earlier applicable only to travellers from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Key source market
Traditionally, India has been one of the key source markets for Singapore. In 2019, Singapore welcomed 1.41 million visitors, making India the third largest source market after China and Indonesia. India was also the number one source market for cruise holidays and a top source for meetings and incentives travel in Singapore in the pre-Covid period.
“For at least five years up to 2019, India has contributed one million visitors to Singapore every year. Now that we are opening up in a Covid endemic situation, we are quite confident that the travel numbers from India will be healthy and it will grow progressively,” Srithar said.
Prior to the pandemic, 15 Indian cities had direct flight connections to Singapore. Srithar said, “We are waiting to see how commercial flights opening up will impact the flight schedules to Singapore.”
In addition to families, Srithar, said that a lot of young working professionals are also looking at Singapore as an attractive destination for quick getaways and staycation experiences. “We will also fine-tune the experiences for meetings and incentives. So, meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) and cruise travel will be important segments that we will be going after in India,” he added.
‘SingapoReimagine’
On Thursday, STB launched ‘SingapoReimagine Reopening campaign’ in Chennai to woo Indian tourists back to Singapore.
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