Tag Archives: Singapore

To provide further updates on the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Singapore and India & Sri Lanka, Singapore Tourism Board will be organising another round of webinar exclusively for the Indian & Sri Lankan travel trade. The ‘Welcome Back to Singapore’ webinar will be held on Monday, February 28 at 11:30am IST/SLST. The virtual session will also touch on Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight operations and the customer experience at Changi Airport and Jewel Changi Airport. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532

Speaking at the second of a series of trade update webinars on 7th December titled ‘Welcome Back to Singapore,’ GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East and South Asia, Singapore Tourism Board, said, “We are delighted that six daily VTL flights commenced on 29th November between India and Singapore. This is a big step towards promoting tourism as we ‘Chart Our Pathways To Tourism Recovery’ together with our travel trade partner-friends and welcome back Indian visitors.” The VTL enables fully-vaccinated travellers from India to visit Singapore without the need for quarantine, subject to applying for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP) and complying with safe travel measures. The two sessions of webinars on 25 November and 7 December jointly organised by the STB, Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport Group, were well attended by more than 2,000 travel agents from the travel fraternity across India.  This showed the strong interest to promote Singapore as one of the top of mind destinations among the consumers in India.

Travellers can travel without quarantine between Singapore and India. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) announced the VTL expansion, under which travellers from Indonesia and India will be able to enter Singapore from 29th November. “The Ministry of Health has updated its public health assessment and will upgrade India to Category II from 19 November. Our discussions with India are progressing well, and we aim to start 2 daily VTL flights each from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai by 29 November,” says S Iswaran, Minister for Transport, Singapore.

ITB Asia 2021 will be an all-virtual event, and the physical show has been postponed to 2022. Messe Berlin (Singapore) has announced the complete digitalisation of ITB Asia, which will be held from 25 – 29 October 2021. The virtual event includes five full days of business appointments and three exclusive days of conference programme. All conference sessions are available on-demand for a month. Exhibitors will get many virtual benefits and some new perks. The event is being held in conjunction with MICE Show Asia as well as Travel Tech Asia. “Our team is committed in bringing a hybrid concept of ITB Asia, MICE Show Asia and Travel Tech Asia for the travel trade industry coming October. However, global health and travel uncertainties accompanied by the rapid emergence of new COVID-19 variants had halted our efforts. The hybrid concept garnered an excellent response with over 600 confirmed exhibitors, but it has become apparent that international delegates are unable to reasonably plan their participation and travel arrangements. Therefore, with a good lead time this year we will conduct the show virtually, offering international delegates a stronger digital platform for B2B networking, learning and knowledge sharing,” said Katrina Leung, Managing Director of Messe Berlin (Singapore), the organiser of ITB Asia.

Singapore is all set to have three new tourist attractions in a few months, revealed GB Srithar, Regional Director-India, Middle East & South Africa. “Three new attractions are going to come up in Singapore, which travellers coming from India can experience soon. First is Museum of Ice Cream, for which Singapore will be the first-ever international location after US. It will open later this year. The second is Asia’s tallest Slingshot, which will be a new thrill-ride concept, and will be opening later this year in Clarke Quay area. Finally, the Sky Helix Sentosa, which will be Singapore’s first open air panoramic attraction, offering visitors scenic views of Sentosa and our southern island waterfront area. This is due to open in 2022,” he revealed.

India Tourism, Singapore, is organising a series of webinars cum B2B sessions titled ‘India Tourism Reconnect’ in the ASEAN region on March 11, 16 & 18, in line with the global vaccination drive. The aim is to reconnect the Indian tourism industry with stakeholders in key markets and start preparing for resumption of business as and when it is announced. The virtual meets will start on 11th March with a focus on Philippines followed by Malaysia (16th March) and Singapore (18th March). Apart from the MOT and State Tourism Organisations, leading tour operators, luxury hotel chains, river cruise and luxury train operators are also participating in the B2B session of the virtual event.

Singapore is expected to relax restrictions for those travellers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The government is carefully monitoring the effectiveness of vaccines in reducing transmission risk. 

Genting Cruise Lines has announced that Dream Cruises will be the first cruise brand to restart service in Singapore with World Dream, as she makes her homeport debut from November 6, 2020. World Dream will also be the newest built cruise ship to homeport in Singapore, offering 2 and 3-night experiences for Singapore residents. Dream Cruises continues to be at the forefront as the first cruise brand in the world to resume operations in a safe manner with two key homeports in Asia, starting with deployment in Taiwan in July 2020. A mandatory COVID-19 test will be conducted on all guests aged 13 and above before embarking on World Dream.

In line with the safe and gradual resumption of economic activities in Singapore, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will start accepting applications for organisers to pilot MICE events of up to 250 attendees from October 1, 2020. It will review all proposals and organisers may proceed only upon obtaining the Ministry of Trade & Industry’s approval. There will be pilot events taking place under this arrangement, such as the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) Conference, in October 2020.

A survey conducted by International Air Transport Association (IATA) at the beginning of April reveals that as many as 47% of air passengers surveyed wished to begin travelling within a month or two (by May or June). The survey, conducted across 11 countries (including India), also revealed that at least 4 per cent still continued being sceptical and did not wish to travel for the foreseeable future. Respondents for the survey were from Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the Unites States.