As the travel trade event South Asia's Travel & Tourism Exchange (SATTE) 2023 kicked off in Noida, the Singapore Tourism Board rolled out a slew of initiatives to tap more visitors from India this year.
Informa Markets, which organises SATTE, said that the 30th edition of the travel trade event was the largest ever, with over 50 tourism boards of countries in attendance and over 600 hosted buyers.
Talking to Connected to India, GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East, South Asia and Africa, said, “India has always been a very big market for Singapore. In 2023, we are looking for more exciting year ahead. For us what is very special about Singapore is we are exploring new ideas to attract more travellers. Indian travellers already know and love Singapore. What's important for us is to be able to highlight all the new and transform offerings that Indian travelers can enjoy in Singapore. This includes new attractions such as ski diving, museum, etc.”
Built around the theme ‘Ramping up Pathways to Recovery, Together!’, the STB’s vision for 2023 and the coming years includes a focus on positioning Singapore as a destination that offers rewarding travel experience to Indian travellers by broadening its appeal, both to a wider Indian demographic which includes young travellers, and as an aspirational destination to celebrate life milestones such as weddings and anniversaries, it said in a statement.
“A total of 48 Singapore travel industry partners are exhibiting at the Singapore Pavilion at SATTE 2023, making this Singapore’s biggest ever presence at SATTE. India has long been one of Singapore’s largest tourism source markets, and is only set to become even more important in 2023, bolstered by a strong recovery in 2022 of close to 50% of the visitor arrivals achieved in 2019. The year ahead in Singapore is exciting, with hotly-anticipated tourism developments and we invite many more Indians with different passion points, travel desires, and aspirations to enjoy our diverse, vibrant, and reimagined offerings,” Srithar added.
The Singapore Pavilion showcases new attractions, initiatives and focus areas STB is working on. Upcoming tourism developments that will be launched in 2023 include Sentosa’s multi-concept family development and Sensoryscape experiential park, as well as Mandai Wildlife Reserve’s Bird Paradise. These developments are expected to further anchor Singapore’s destination attractiveness to travellers from all across India.
Alongside SATTE 2023, STB has lined up a series of trade outreach activities across India, which includes a B2B networking platform in Chennai on February 13, and two wedding networking engagements with 35 top wedding planners in partnership with WeddingSutra on February 7 and 8 in Mumbai and Delhi respectively.