- Saturday, April 27, 2024
A top Singapore Tourism Board official said it was doing a vigorous promotion of the city-state’s attractions in India as a holiday destination through its offices in Mumbai and Delhi.
By: Shubham Ghosh
SINGAPORE has expressed optimism over the prospect of arrivals of tourists from India and is directing efforts toward enhancing its hospitality infrastructure, particularly in hotel accommodations, as stated by one of its senior tourism officials.
In 2019, prior to the pandemic-induced lockdown, Singapore had welcomed 1.4 million Indian tourists, which rebounded to 1.1 million in 2023.
Poh Chi Chuan, executive director of exhibitions & conferences at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), highlighted while speaking to news agency Press Trust of India its vigorous promotion of the city-state’s attractions in India as a holiday destination through its offices in Mumbai and Delhi.
Singapore is building infrastructure for tourists and business travellers such as 9,000 new hotel rooms that are being added to about 72,000 existing rooms.
Read: Indian companies confident over business prospects at Singapore Airshow
“We need visitors to come and fill these rooms,” Poh underlined.
The STB held a press conference to announce the inaugural APAC (Asia Pacific) edition of the world-renowned National Retail Federation (NRF) Retail Big Show to be held in the city-state on June 11-13, six months after NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show in New York City.
Singapore is just not looking at the tourist traffic out of India but also business travellers given that both countries have a growing trade and a prospering Indian economy, Poh said last week.
Read: Singapore business community elated over Modi’s interim budget, says it will hit bull’s eye
“We also see a lot of opportunities coming up in India in sectors such as pharma, BioMed, IT and FinTech. These are very strong industries for Singapore to increase bilateral trade,” he said, adding that Singapore has large-scale exhibitions and conferences catering to these sectors covering advanced technologies.
The APAC (Asia Pacific) edition of NRF is expecting between 5-10 per cent of delegates for its 5,000-participant strong Singapore show in June, said Ryf Quail, managing director of the global retail event that is held annually in New York.
Industry stalwarts addressing the mega gathering include Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of the Retailers Association of India; Shireesh Joshi, chief business officer of Open Network for Digital Commerce, and Mathsy Kutty, APAC Leader, The Climate Pledge, Amazon.
(With PTI inputs)
