Speech by Ms Melissa Ow, Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board, at the Tourism Industry Conference 2024

Greetings

1. Good morning Minister Grace Fu, friends, partners, and colleagues from the tourism sector. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Tourism Industry Conference 2024.  

Celebrating the Past & STB's 60th Anniversary

2. The story of tourism has been one of resilience and enterprise over the last six decades.

   • a. I personally have had the privilege of working with many passionate and talented colleagues and industry partners in shaping Singapore’s tourism landscape

     • i. Some of my fondest memories include the inception and development of our beloved Gardens by the Bay in 2005 to its opening in 2012

     • ii. as well as the development of the two integrated resorts, Resorts World Sentosa

     • iii. And Marina Bay Sands over the same period.

     • iv. Another major milestone was welcoming our historic 10 millionth visitor to Singapore in 2007 and bearing witness to the inaugural Formula One Singapore Grand Prix in 2008.

   • b. Our tourism story would be incomplete without acknowledging how time and again, we overcame adversities and prevailed. In our most recent Covid-19 crisis,

     • i. Many of you not only stepped up in solidarity to support our national efforts against Covid-19

     • ii. but also pivoted to overcome challenges creatively, engaged locals to support tourism businesses, and welcomed visitors to keep our destination mindshare during the pandemic.

     • iii. No doubt there will be other challenges in the future. But I’m confident that this sense of adaptability, resilience, and solidarity will serve us well as we progress into the second half of this decade.

3. This year marks the Singapore Tourism Board's 60th anniversary. Let us celebrate 60 years of economic contribution and job creation, enhancing the liveability and love-ability of Singapore, and proudly promoting our little red dot to the world.

4. On this note, I extend my congratulations to all our tourism partners including past and present employees across the tourism sector, for their efforts in shaping the vibrant destination Singapore that we see today.

Act on the Present

5. Singapore’s tourism has rebounded strongly since we re-opened our borders in 2022. Last year, we achieved 13.6 million international visitor arrivals and S$27.2 billion in tourism receipts, marking almost a full recovery to 2019 performance. Given the pace of resumption in global travel and after reviewing conditions across our key markets, we are updating our forecast for 2024.

6. This year, STB is projecting between 15 million – 16.5 million international visitor arrivals and we expect tourism receipts to reach between S$27.5 billion to S$29 billion. This is no mean feat as the upper bound of our Tourism Receipts projection, if achieved, will be a new record for Singapore, and it will mean that we have emerged even stronger after the pandemic.

7. Let me share why we are optimistic about the outlook for 2024 and more importantly, recap the ideas, initiatives and investments that we have embarked on to ride the waves of recovery, and deal with headwinds on the horizon.

Singapore’s Global Flight Connectivity

8. For a start, global flight connectivity and capacity recovery bodes well for us to sustain growth:

   • a. As of first week of May 2024, international flight capacity – based on seat
     capacity – has recovered close to pre-Covid levels, with some of our top source markets such as China, India and South Korea exceeding pre-Covid flight capacities.¹

   • b. New flights have been launched, allowing us to deepen our reach across the globe.  

Made in Singapore Brand Campaign

9. Telling a great Singapore story and keeping pace with changes in travel behaviour is our obsession. Amidst intense competition for the tourism dollar, we are stepping up our marketing efforts to attract increasingly discerning and choiceful travellers who are looking for more purposeful travel to Singapore.

   • a. Last September, we launched the Made In Singapore (MIS) global brand campaign across our key visitor source markets.

     • i. We unveiled our first-ever 3D out-of-home billboards in high traffic areas such as Times Square New York, Piccadilly Circus London and XinTiandi in Shanghai to stoke interest and drive travels to Singapore. You can see some of the examples on this screen;

     • ii. We engaged key influencers to share their unique experiences in Singapore, and inspire a wider audience including their fanbases to visit. Let us take a look at some recent collaborations and more to come in the next few months.

   • b. To sharpen our competitive edge, we will continue to develop our six global positioning campaigns, supported by a mix of products and experiences.

     • i. We recently launched the World's Best MICE City campaign, where we profile Singapore as a leading MICE destination that drives purposeful outcomes.

     • ii. As we roll out these campaigns, I encourage you to consider integrating these global positionings into your marketing efforts to deliver a compelling Singapore story to the world.

Global Partnerships

10. Next, I’m pleased to share that we have inked several notable partnerships. This includes tapping into the fanbase of film, music and television as well as extending our reach to customers of global travel and payment platform players. Let me cite a few examples:

    • a. STB and JTBC, a leading South Korean TV network which has produced wildly popular shows, have committed to a three-year MOU to support production of variety programmes in Singapore.

      • i. For a start, Singapore’s landmarks and attractions will be featured in its most popular dating reality show “My Sibling’s Romance”.

    • b. Earlier this year, we hosted the star-studded Yuewen Global IP Awards marking our first partnership with Yuewen Global, a leading Chinese media and entertainment subsidiary of Tencent group. Taking place for the first time outside of China, the live broadcasts attracted over 30 million viewers.

    • c. In addition, we have committed to multi-year partnerships with leading online TV platforms, iQiYi and Mango TV, to further profile Singapore’s offerings. I am pleased to share that one of Mango TV’s most popular reality shows "Divas Hit the Road" (花儿与少年) has recently completed its filming in Singapore and will be airing in June, just before the peak summer travels for Chinese visitors.

    • d. Next, STB has renewed our partnership with Trip.com Group for another three years. Leveraging its global network, STB and Trip.com will embark on a series of marketing campaigns in eight markets, including mainland China, UK, Thailand, and more. The partnership also entails collaboration with Hong Hu Travel, Trip’s premium arm for customised travel, allowing us to have greater access to potential high spend visitors.

    • e. In India, our two-year partnership with PhonePe, India's largest payments platform means that Indian visitors to Singapore can now use the PhonePe app, to make payments across more than 8,000 merchants in Singapore. I encourage you to work with us to integrate your product offerings with this payment framework.

This afternoon, we have breakout sessions by our international teams and I encourage you to tune in online. 

Delivering quality experiences

11. Engaging with our fans and visitors and extending our reach to new markets would all be in vain if not for a great destination that continues to deliver quality experiences.

12. We need to provide compelling reasons for our target segments to visit and ultimately drive higher spend in Singapore.

    • a. This is why we are relentless in the pursuit of novel tourism concepts, steadfast in the refresh of our existing products, and nimble in securing major events.

    • b. To catalyse the industry in stepping up our game, we have earlier announced an additional S$300 million injection to our Tourism Development Fund 4. This will help businesses create and anchor more new products and experiences, rejuvenate existing products, and upskill manpower to stay relevant.

Leisure Tourism Products

13. Many of our private sector stakeholders have already acted on the trend towards deeper discovery travel and introduced new concepts with unique lifestyle experiences built around a Singapore heritage story.

    • a. CQ @ Clarke Quay re-launched just two weeks ago (26 April) as a vibrant day-to-night lifestyle destination with a mix of heritage and contemporary brands such as Swee Lee and Chanel showcasing new brand experiences.

    • b. The Lo & Behold Group will revitalise the former Nan Chiau High School into a vibrant creative cluster of dining, arts, entertainment and retail industries known as New Bahru, opening progressively later this month.

14. Other industry partners have continued to invest in new and innovative experiences partnering world-class IP.

    • a. In the last quarter of 2024, ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands will be bringing to Singapore The World of Studio Ghibli, an immersive exhibition celebrating some of the studio’s most iconic animation films.

    • b. Visitors can also look forward to The Harry Potter: Visions of Magic, an interactive immersive experience opening later this year at Resorts World Sentosa. Let’s view a trailer of the experience.  

15. Over the next few years, we are set to welcome more exciting developments:

    • a. Besides Bird Paradise which opened its doors last year, visitors can also look forward to more experiences in Mandai progressively, including the Mandai Rainforest Resort operated by Banyan Tree, the free access boardwalk, and the fifth gate experience – the Rainforest Wild parks.

    • b. Sentosa presented a new beachfront experience last year at The Palawan, with Asia’s first indoor gamified electric go-kart circuit, a new family beach club, food trucks and more. Sensoryscape, a multi-sensory journey with an immersive digital light art and augmented reality experience, opened in March this year. At Resorts World Sentosa, the S.E.A. Aquarium will soon triple in size to become the Singapore Oceanarium, which will offer enriching educational activities whilst championing marine science research and conservation.

    • c. The world’s first regional Porsche Experience Centre is set to open in Changi, Singapore, by 2027. The all-new lifestyle attraction will feature a 2km handling track, and a range of experiences such as themed exhibitions and immersive racing simulators. When launched, it will be Singapore’s first permanent driving focused facility.  

16. Next, let me touch on some of the new areas of tourism development. The wellness economy presents opportunities for Singapore to capture market share in the growing global wellness space and position ourselves as a leading urban wellness haven.

    • a. STB in partnership with the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) launched a joint Price and Quality tender in April to call for wellness and fitness lifestyle proposals located at the heart of Dempsey. The tender will close on 29 May 2024 and I encourage interested parties to submit your proposals as soon as possible.

    • b. As announced by Minister Grace earlier, STB will also be launching a tender for the development of a world-class wellness attraction at the southern coast of Singapore in the upcoming months. The site is close to the Marina Barrage and we believe this development will enable Singapore to capture new opportunities in the wellness travel space and contribute towards greater vibrancy of the Marina South precinct.

Hotels

17. Having seen the wonderful attractions and concepts, let’s shift our focus to hotels. Over the past year, we welcomed numerous new hotels, bringing the total room stock in our city to more than 73,000. Several hotels also underwent refurbishments and refreshed their offerings.

18. In the pipeline, new concepts will add to the diversity of accommodation options and experiences in Singapore.

Cruise

19. On the cruise front, last year, we announced that Disney Cruise Line will be homeporting a ship in Singapore for 5 years from 2025. I am pleased to share that they will be releasing more details of Disney Adventure soon as anticipation builds for the launch of the inaugural sailing.

20. In addition to Disney, Singapore will welcome cruise ships including:

    • a. Resorts World One by Resorts World Cruises,

    • b. Anthem of the Seas by Royal Caribbean, and

    • c. Silver Nova by Silversea, the first LNG cruise ship to ever sail from Singapore, which will arrive this October.

Events – Leisure

21. Let me now move on to events.

    • a. Last September, the 14^th edition of Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix attracted a strong turnout of more than 264,000 attendees, with several business events and fringe activities held around F1.

    • b. We played host to inaugural events including the Olympic Esports Week

    • c. and ART SG 2023, Southeast Asia’s leading international art fair which welcomed over 42,000 visitors.

    • d. In the first few months of 2024, Singapore hosted world-class entertainment acts such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Bruno Mars,

    • e. as well as the Taylor Swift The Eras Tour. The Taylor Swift Eras Tour alone drew more than 300,000 fans from here and around the region.

    • f. Just last weekend, major sporting events such as the HSBC SVNS

    • g. and LIV Golf Singapore thrilled fans from Singapore and the region.

    • h. In addition to attracting first-in-the-region lifestyle events, we are also happy to support local event organisers in creating first-of-its-kind concepts. One such example is Singapore’s first homegrown esports event, Fanzeal Esports Festival which will take place in end November 2024. It will feature multiple esports titles and will be held at Sentosa's Palawan Green.

Events – Business

22. Moving from leisure to business. Our MICE industry continues to fire on all cylinders as we build a robust line-up of events from diverse industries including medical, lifestyle, aviation, innovation and more. Our global positioning as the World’s Best MICE City is not just an aspiration; thanks to the good work of all our partners and a vibrant and open economy in one of the most exciting regions of the world, we are truly a thriving global city in Asia where business, knowledge, ideas and capital converge and flourish.

    • a. In 2023,

      • i. We welcomed new to Singapore events including the International Trademark Association (INTA)’s 145^th Annual Meeting

      • ii. and the World Congress of Dermatology 2023 – our largest medical congress to date.

      • iii. We keep scaling new heights. A homegrown event, the Singapore FinTech Festival achieved record turnout year after year, reaching over 66,000 attendees last November.

    • b. The strong momentum gives us a promising start to the year. In the first quarter of 2024, Singapore Airshow, Asia-Pacific Maritime, and Food & Hotel Asia – Food & Beverage reached record numbers. We also played host to the inaugural Asia Photonics Expo, a spinoff of the largest photonics event in China, held outside of China for the first time.

    • c. We are fully committed to shaping a vibrant business events landscape with you.

      • i. From its new regional headquarters in Singapore, Nineteen Group Asia will launch its inaugural exhibition on safety, security, and emergency services in Singapore come 2025, estimated to attract 10,000 attendees;

      • ii. We have also secured events well into the end of this decade. In addition to the 110^th Lions Club International Convention happening in 2028, I’m happy to share that we have also secured rights to host the International Union of Radio Science's General Assembly and Scientific Symposium as far out as 2029.

23. Thus far, I have shared Singapore’s vibrant offerings from multiple facets of the tourism sector, both leisure and business. As you can see, we are well-positioned to capture travel demand, thanks to the industry’s agility and creativity to transform and shape the tourism landscape of Singapore with us.

Building Industry Capabilities

24. Let me switch gears and talk about capabilities.

    • a. From delivering winning tourism products and services, to driving solutions to address tourism’s response to climate change and social impact, our workforce is at the heart of the business not just in terms of delivering the best experiences but in addressing challenges that our industry faces.

    • b. Upskilling our workers and growing the competitiveness of our tourism companies will remain a focus.

25. First, on enterprise development, STB will enhance the Tourism Sustainability Programme (TSP) to provide more targeted support, in the areas of sustainability certification, reporting and carbon management. As part of this effort, STB will be engaging industry partners to better understand key areas of support required. I strongly urge the industry to press on with your sustainability efforts.

26. Second, on workforce development, in addition to the Tourism Leadership Programme which Minister announced, I am happy to share that STB will ink a three-year partnership with National Trade Union Congress LearningHub (NTUC LHUB) to co-develop and offer courses in key emerging areas such as sustainability, service experience excellence and technology. Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), together with businesses on Sentosa island, will be the pilot partner with the Learning Hub to kick start this initiative.

27. We will also be enhancing a few existing initiatives for our tourist guides and travel agents.

    • a. In the second half of this year, STB will roll out a more compact licensing course for aspiring tourist guides, in partnership with three Approved Training Organisations. This is part of STB’s larger effort under our vision for the Future of Guiding 2.0, where we aim to attract a vibrant and steady stream of tourist guides from different professions, of different ages, presenting different facets of the Singapore story.

    • b. Following a comprehensive review of the Travel Agents Industry Roadmap, we will also roll out a revised roadmap, by the first half of 2025, focusing on emerging technologies, cross-industry collaboration and upskilling the workforce.

Tourism Careers

28. To promote awareness and interest in a career in the tourism sector, STB launched the Tourism Careers Campaign last year showcasing the diversity of jobs within the sector, featuring personalities from various industries.

29. It is important that we attract and retain talent for the tourism sector, while meeting the career aspirations of Singaporeans. STB will continue the Tourism Careers Campaign in 2024, to showcase the diverse roles and career pathways. We hope to inspire and build the next generation of tourism leaders, who possess the passion for tourism. Let’s take a look at Lawrence’s journey.

Enhancing Tech & Data Capabilities

30. Moving on to tech and data capabilities. With increasing constraints on resources, technology and data capabilities will enable our tourism businesses to optimise resources, enhance visitor experience, and become more productive. We will continue to support industry in building these critical skillsets for the future.

31. Through STB’s Tcube, we have partnered with industry to source and trial solutions to help businesses accelerate digital transformation efforts. I’m happy to share some trials:

    • a. The first is Gardens by the Bay which partnered Circular Unite to optimise its waste management with the potential of increasing 20% of its existing recycling rates.

    • b. Another example is Far East Hospitality Management, which ran a pilot with local start-up ByteGenie leveraging AI to automate the search of prospective sales leads. Let’s take a look at this pilot run.

32. After this session, our Chief Technology Officer, Mr Wong Ming Fai, and industry partners will share their views of how emerging technologies, such as Generative AI or GenAI, could revolutionise the tourism and travel industry. Please join us.

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

33. Looking ahead, as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have identified tourism as a key driver of economic growth and recovery. Competition for the tourism dollar is set to intensify in the coming years.

34. Beyond immediate opportunities and working as Team Singapore to fend off the competition, we must also recognise global trends and major shifts over the next decades that will impact our workers, our business and our industry.

    • a. First, the world is ageing rapidly. By 2040, the population of individuals aged 65 and above is estimated to double to more than 1.3billion². It is projected that half of this population will reside in Asia³. This phenomenon will be one of the greatest social, economic transformations of our time and will no doubt, impact consumption patterns, lifestyles, and of course, travels.

    • b. Asia will remain the engine of growth of the global economy, driven by the major economies of India, China and Southeast Asia.⁴ Global wealth is also shifting with Asia leading the way, primarily driven by the vibrant start up scene and wealth creation of first-generation entrepreneurs and inter-generational wealth transfers.⁵

    • c. A third trend to note – technology advancements, including GenAI, are anticipated to experience significant, accelerated development in the next decade.  Tech advances could also bring about greater product innovations and productivity breakthroughs in automating manpower-intensive jobs.

35. What do all these trends mean for Singapore as a destination?

    • a. As Asia remains the engine of global economic growth, an increase in economic activity is likely to drive demand for business and MICE travel.

    • b. Closer to home, Southeast Asia is set to become the fourth largest economy⁶. The outlook for our region is encouraging with a burgeoning upper middle class and affluent consumers for whom travel and the quest for leisure experiences will only grow.

    • c. At the same time, the quality of lifestyle experiences and tourism offerings in the home countries of our visitors and across many of our competitor destinations will become more compelling. There will be a premium on what is intrinsically unique and that which truly delivers quality and value.

The key question for us is will Singapore continue to appeal and win over our visitors?

36. Against this backdrop of increased competition and opportunities, the time is right for us to set the foundation for long term growth. This is necessary for planning and pursuing investments in major infrastructure and tourism concepts and aligning our strategies with the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Draft Master Plan 2025 (DMP2025) which outlines key development areas and land use plans for the next 10-15 years.

37. Around the mid-2030s, Changi Airport’s Terminal 5 is also expected to be operational, giving us added capacity to handle up to 50 million passengers a year, equivalent to Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 combined. This will cement Singapore’s position as a key aviation hub and present new opportunities for us to tap.

38. Tourism 2040 is therefore a planning roadmap to identify and align our efforts around new growth areas for the sector as we embark on the next phase of our Quality Tourism journey.

39. That said, as we work towards long term sustainable growth for tourism and persevere on driving quality tourism through a yield-driven strategy, we must not lose sight of driving incremental growth in visitor numbers which is necessary to sustain a baseload demand for many of our tourism businesses. Therefore we will continue to attract and grow our core visitor base comprising of Leisure and BTMICE visitors.

40. In summary, as Minister Grace Fu has shared, our vision for Singapore in 2040 is to be

    • a. a world class destination with diverse, unique and inspiring experiences for visitors,

    • b. a vibrant and endearing home that Singaporeans and residents can proudly advocate for, and

    • c. a global hub of innovative and productive tourism enterprises, where companies and talents co-create sustainable tourism growth.

41. In the third quarter of this year, we will be launching a series of engagements and workshops with the industry, members of the public as well as Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs).

42. I invite industry partners to shape the future of tourism with us - Made In Singapore, for the World.

43. With this, I thank you and I wish everyone a productive conference ahead!

¹To note that the flight capacity recovery for China refers to mainland China.

²From 761million in 2021. Source: Euromonitor International, June 2020

³Euromonitor International, Nov 2020

⁴World Economic Forum, Jan 2024

⁵Financial Times, Dec 2023

⁶Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), Data Report to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy, EIU, 2023