Impact of Covid-19 on Singapore’s Travel and Tourism Industry, Dealing with Pandemic.

GB Srithar May 07, 2020

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has brought an unprecedented amount of uncertainty into economies around the world. Countries across the globe are battling growing health threats, implementing wide-ranging social-distancing norms, while corporates and governments are coming together to support the less fortunate and providing financial relief packages to stabilise economic conditions. This is the biggest challenge that Singapore tourism has faced in its 56-year history, and it will not be easy to navigate, with the world coming to a standstill.

The impact of COVID-19 on travel, tourism, aviation and hospitality is rather steep, to say the least. Initially, we anticipated a 25 per cent to 30 per cent decline in visitor arrivals globally, but we expect further declines after more countries reported outbreaks and travel restrictions were implemented around the world.

The key priority for all of us in this sector now is to support our governments’ measures to keep citizens and residents as safe and protected as possible, and reducing the risks of infections through any kind of travel. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Singapore Government has progressively implemented a series of measures to reduce the risk of imported cases and spread of the virus. We have also been communicating regularly with our valued partners to keep them updated of the situation in Singapore, and the measures we have taken to contain the spread of the virus.

To further support tourism businesses and partners during these challenging times, and to lead them on the path of recovery, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has rolled out several new initiatives.

We started a Tourism Recovery Action Task Force (TRAC) to develop and implement strategies to aid the tourism industry and position ourselves for recovery. In addition, we worked closely with the National Environment Agency (NEA) and other government agencies to roll out the "SG Clean" campaign, which aims to reassure the public that our local businesses maintain high standards of cleanliness and sanitation. As a sign of the government’s commitment to high levels of public health, certification fees for the SG Clean quality mark will be waived this year and next for more than 32,000 premises.

STB India has undertaken the #UnitedWeStand trade engagement initiative and shared emailers, a Letter of Unity and video messages to keep the travel trade updated on Singapore tourism matters and show solidarity and unity with the travel fraternity in these trying times. We have also ramped up our trade outreach efforts through a series of update sessions on Destination Singapore with our partners to raise their product knowledge of Singapore’s offerings for both leisure and business travellers. This is, in fact, an opportune time for the tourism industry to invest in their people. We have offered the online version of STB’s Marketing College to our trade partners. This is to help build their marketing capabilities and enable them to be ‘Agile, Bold and Creative’ in their marketing of Singapore.

Although travel restrictions are still in place, this is an important time for travel authorities to drive higher consumer engagement than ever before. Over the last couple of years, we have promoted the destination brand “Passion Made Possible” vigorously and presented Singapore’s diverse offerings to audiences across India - families, early & established careers, cruise travellers, meetings and incentive groups and travellers from the key metro and secondary cities. At present, the global grounding of airlines has put us in a position of uncertainty, but once international travel restrictions are lifted, we hope to resume our activations and promotions in our primary markets including India.

India continues to be the third-largest source market for Singapore, having crossed the one-millionth mark for Visitor Arrivals into Singapore for the fifth consecutive year in 2019.

As a country, Singapore has shown great resilience in fighting the challenges. For one, we have invested in a robust system to handle the outbreak after SARS, and have strengthened our healthcare infrastructure. We also have very dedicated frontline staff who have strong support from the local community while inspiring others.

We are confident that we can overcome this because the fundamentals of our tourism industry remain strong. Good tourism growth in the last few years proves that our destination is an attractive one for leisure and business visitors. Our market portfolio is also diverse, with a strong pipeline of long-term plans that will come to fruition in partnership with the industry.

This too shall pass: the travel industry, along with the rest of the world, will bounce back to normalcy and inherent dynamism.