03 March 2009

Singapore unveils Ã&#pound;42m tourism boost

Singapore Tourism Board is embarking on a Ã&#pound;42 million initiative to encourage tourism.

The BOOST (Building on Opportunities to Strengthen Tourism) campaign aims to increase travel to Singapore and will include tactical marketing campaigns developed in collaboration with tourism industry partners.

A Ã¢â¬Åâœ2009 Reasons toEnjoy SingaporeÃ¢â¬~ year-long global marketing campaign is part of the promotional push and will feature special offers.

Eight key source tourism markets will participate in the campaign: Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, Vietnam, UK, Germany and Australia.

The thrust of the campaign in the UK will focus on the promotion of Singapore as a Ã¢â¬Ëœmust-seeÃ¢â¬â¢ stopover destination and will see the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) partner with a number of operators including Travel 2 and Trailfinders on a wide range of promotional campaigns, including a mix of print, online, in-store and broadcast media.

The UK continues to be the most important European source market for the destination, with approximately 493,000 visitors in 2008, representing a dip of just 0.6% on arrival figures for 2007.

STBÃ¢â¬â¢s area director for Northern and Western Europe Divya Panickar said: Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe are really excited to launch this campaign in the UK market and to be able to continue to work closely with our tour operator and airline partners.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe UK market held up well under difficult circumstances in 2008 and this campaign will help us maintain our visitor arrival levels in what appears to be a challenging year for the industry."

by Phil Davies