Singapore Tourism Board sees vast potential in strengthening East M’sia-Singapore route
KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore Tourism Board believes that there is a lot of potential to grow the East Malaysia-Singapore route as the East Malaysian market continue to have a very strong interest in travelling to Singapore.
“For 2016, East Malaysia contributed to 10.2 per cent of the total visitor arrivals, a 0.6 per cent increase from the previous year.
“And from January to July 2017, there was a year on year increase of 0.9 per cent which made up of 10.4 per cent of Malaysia total visitor arrivals to date,” Singapore Tourism Board Southeast Asia executive director Edward Koh said in an email interview with The Borneo Post.
He continued: “The East Malaysian market continue to have a very strong interest in travelling to Singapore.
“They will select Singapore as their preferred destination to travel with their families and is also the preferred destination as an inaugural overseas trip.
“We have worked closely with the airlines partners that offer an East Malaysian-Singapore route and we both believe that there is a lot of potential to grow this route.”
Earlier last month, Singapore Airlines Group’s wholly owned low-cost long haul subsidiary, Scoot Tigerair Pte Ltd (Scoot) launched its inaugural route connecting Kuching with Singapore.
Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd (AirAsia) had also expanded its East Malaysia-Singapore route by introducing the its new Bintulu Singapore route and increasing its flight frequency between key routes in East Malaysia to Singapore, further solidifying the importance of growing the East Malaysian-Singapore connectivity.
“We have found that East Malaysian travellers see travel as a way to rejuvenate their minds, broaden their horizons and to bond with their families and friends.
“Hence, family travel packages for more than four pax in a family are very popular with the market. The next consideration is connectivity. The duration to Singapore is the same to Kuala Lumpur,” Koh said.
Now that the school holidays are here, take the chance to experience Singapore’s specially curated tours under its newly launched ‘Passion Made Possible’ brand.
“STB Malaysia will be working closely with the local travel trade, Singaporean stakeholders, airlines, cruise liners and banks to curate and offer special promotions to entice Malaysians to travel to Singapore and explore their passions with family or friends. “Additionally, we will be working with a few key-opinion-leaders (KOLs) to share their Passion Made Possible story in Singapore,” Koh added.