SINGAPORE powered up for a safe return to cruising
STB India recently connected with Indian cruise stakeholders through CruiseWorld India 2021. What were some of the important feedback received from the participants in regard to resumption of cruising in Singapore?
STB connected virtually with its in-market cruise stakeholders at CruiseWorld India 2021. The event enabled us to re-engage our agent partners to come together to exchange ideas and jointly configure a pathway to recovery of cruise travel
to Singapore.
We received positive feedback from the 300+ participants and a sense of optimism was communicated by the industry stakeholders on customers opting for cruising as a mode of holiday and vacation when travel restarts.
Agents shared that customers will give utmost priority to factors such as health, hygiene and safety of the cruising experience and most of the travellers will prefer a mix of landcruise holidays that lasts anywhere between 3 to 14 days.
Singapore has piloted safe cruises from November 2020, with enhanced protocols to safeguard passenger health from pre-boarding to disembarkation. More than 120,000 Singapore residents have set sail on approximately ninety sailings on Genting’s World Dream and RCI’s Quantum of the Seas from Singapore since the pilot kicked off, with no reported cases of COVID-19 spreading on board. This is an encouraging response in the restart of cruising. TTJ discusses with GB Srithar, Regional Director (IMESA), Singapore Tourism Board, to know more about the current cruise scenario in Singapore and their anticipation of Indians looking forward to visit the popular destination.
Prashant Nayak
Singapore has succeeded in restarting cruises safely for domestic audiences, thanks to stringent hygiene and safety measures under our CruiseSafe certification programme. We see this as a critical step in building the confidence of trade and consumers for the next phase of cruising.
Pre-COVID, the concept of cruising was picking in a big way with the Indians and Singapore seemed to be a preferred short-haul destination for it.
Can you envisage their present preferences for cruising?
India remains a major source market for Singapore, not just for leisure and MICE travel but also for cruise tourism. In 2018 and 2019, India was the top cruise travel source market for Singapore.
As international travel gradually resumes, Singapore has been named one of the top post-pandemic destinations that travellers in Asia would be likely to visit, according to a recent study by Blackbox Research.
Based on feedback from CruiseWorld India 2021 event, we note that Indian travellers are most likely to take up cruising in Singapore once the international borders open. However, they will be mindful of their health and give importance to the hygiene and safety measures employed by the cruise lines.
Singapore is prepared for recovery to be a slow, deliberate and cautious process.
While we have made good progress in resuming domestic tourism and gradual resumption of MICE travel, we are sometimes away from larger leisure movements, including cruise holidays for overseas visitors.
Tell us about the possible new opportunities in the Indian cruise market when normalcy
returns?
‘Families with kids’ has been a major target segment for us when it comes to cruises. That shall continue even after the pandemic is over as according to our partners, they are the ones eager to consider cruising. As per the poll conducted during the recent CruiseWorld India 2021, the ‘families with kids’ segment ranked top as the leisure segment most likely to consider cruises at 50 per cent.
We also foresee the ‘early and established careers’ segment emerging as a key segment from India who are most likely to travel to Singapore and hopefully consider cruising an ideal way to holiday.
We also anticipate that travellers may prefer a longer length of stay at destinations, opting to combine land & cruise vacations together for an average stay of a week. This presents STB and our partners an opportunity to drive longer pre/post stays in Singapore. This insight is also drawn from the survey conducted during CruiseWorld India 2021, where 42 per cent of the respondents said were likely to take a land and cruise holiday for more than a week.
Another important area that we will continue to focus on after the pandemic is over, is giving extra attention to hygiene and safety, as the health and safety of visitors is our top priority.
Tell us about STB’s Cruise Development Fund to support the industry and how it can be tapped to develop and market cruise packages out of Singapore?
The Cruise Development Fund (CDF) supports cruise industry players such as cruise lines, travel agents, charterers and trainers in activities that will build strong consumer demand for cruises from Singapore. It supports the development and marketing of cruise packages sailing out of Singapore. It supports qualifying costs relating to:
• Consumer & trade marketing
• Development of pre/post-cruise experiences
• Themed cruise
• Travel agent training activities
• Professional services
We are heartened that several of our cruise partners in India see the CDF as a tool to enhance their value proposition to consumers. Some of the agents on boarded for this grant include Thomas Cook, Guideline Travels, FCM, Travstarz Global, and Antilog Vacations.
Despite the COVID-19 situation, can you tell us one or two encouraging trends you have noticed in the cruise industry?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global travel trade economy, including the cruise industry. In these challenging times, the industry has showcased resilience in adapting to the changes brought on by the pandemic.
Focusing on the safe and gradual return of cruising, our cruise lines have been reviewing their processes to implement enhanced health and sanitization measures, with STB’s support. Singapore
commenced pilot trials of “cruise to nowhere” itineraries for Singapore residents with two operators Genting Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International - last year. The programme has received an overwhelming response with over 90 sailings and more than 120,000 passengers so far. Singapore currently accounts for a third of the world’s cruises.
We are glad to see that the cruise lines have reinvented existing spaces onboard, to provide a greater variety of entertainment offerings for passengers. With no ports of call in the sailing itineraries, it is important for cruise ships to continually refresh their onboard programming to appeal to locals. For example, Genting Cruise Lines curated special programmes and experiences especially for the month of Ramadan – including dedicated prayer and meal timings for Muslim passengers fasting onboard.
Our aim is not just to open safely, but to also ensure a sustainable resumption. The findings derived from the pilots will continue to enable cruise lines to refine safe management measures and best practices for the industry.
Can you brief us on latest destination updates and highlights in Singapore and what STB has been doing to ensure a seamless visitor experience and a top choice destination for Indians when borders reopen?
Singapore is fortunate in that we have the capacity and resources to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in a robust manner and we have made good progress. Singapore is ranked by Deep Knowledge Centre, an independent think tank body, as the 4th safest country in the world for COVID-19. This is a mark of assurance that Singapore is doing things right. As international travel gradually resumes, Singapore has been named one of the top post-pandemic destinations that travellers in Asia would be likely to visit, according to a recent study by Blackbox Research.
The health and safety of our local community and overseas visitors have been our top priority, and Singapore has put in place rigorous standards of safe management and hygiene. We have developed detailed national guidelines called Safe Management Measures (SMMs) and customised them for each tourism sector – from hotels and tours to attractions and cruises. These cover measures such as capacity limits, as well as ensuring safe distancing and good hygiene practices.
To set high standards of environmental public hygiene and to build confidence in our businesses, we also launched the SG Clean quality mark in February 2020. This is a national mark of excellence that is awarded to businesses that meet those standards. To date, more than 29,000 individual premises have been certified as “SG Clean” across Singapore, including tourism-related premises.
In addition, STB and our tourism partners have been leveraging technology and the digital medium for consumer outreach in India since the start of the pandemic as it is important to continue engaging and entertaining potential tourists in such extraordinary times and keep Singapore close to their hearts and minds.
Howimportantarepartnerships and engagements with Indian stakeholders for STB during these challenging times?
STB India sees our partnerships and relationships with our stakeholders and partner-friends as critical to our success in the market.
Since COVID-19, STB India has been constantly engaging our partners to show our solidarity, keep them updated on the situation in Singapore, and discuss how to make travel better, safer and more seamless as we plan for travel to restart.
Early on, as the pandemic unfolded in the first quarter of last year, STB India ramped up our engagement efforts. Adopting the #UnitedWeStand trade engagement theme, we communicated, through virtual platforms, e-newsletters and videos, messages of solidarity and unity with the travel fraternity. We conducted update sessions and webinars on Destination Singapore to upskill our partners’ leisure and MICE product knowledge. We opened up our virtual STB Marketing College to enable travel agents to develop their marketing skills.
Earlier this year, STB concluded its first virtual travel trade engagement roadshows for 2021 in India. Based on this year’s theme, “Charting Our Pathways to Tourism Recovery”, the roadshows aimed at strengthening partnerships and planning on how to grow the tourism business and prepare for travel restart once travel resumes.
The recently held CruiseWorld India 2021 was another such event which helped in reconnecting with the cruise partners and strengthening our close ties. The event brought together industry leaders to offer valuable insights on how to gear up for when cruising returns, as well as help us to gather feedback on how we can better support our partners.
We value our partnership with all our Indian stakeholders. We continue to be in touch with them through our various platforms such as the STBIndia WhatsApp account, our trade newsletters and video messages, as well as webinars and destination updates.