STB and Traveloka look to lure visitors from five major SEA markets

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Traveloka have partnered in a bid to promote Singapore as a "preferred destination" for visitors from five major Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The agreement between both organisations covers three areas which include information sharing, marketing campaigns and content generation. The cross-sharing of knowledge between STB and Traveloka is expected to generate new insights that will enable both organisations to target Southeast Asian travellers with "more relevant products and experiences", as well as to enhance their overall experience in Singapore. Both STB and Traveloka will also co-invest in marketing campaigns to market Singapore in the five Southeast Asian markets. In addition, STB will provide "relevant and up-to-date" content about Singapore to Traveloka from STB’s Tourism Information and Services Hub. Both parties will collaborate on making more Singapore activities and experiences available for online booking via Traveloka’s regional platforms. STB aims to increase the exposure of Singapore’s offerings by various Singapore businesses, and provide more options for travellers to create a personalised itinerary based on their interests. Prior to this agreement, STB and Traveloka had collaborated on a campaign in February 2019 in Indonesia to promote Singapore activities and attractions, paving a strong foundation for greater partnership between the two parties. Further collaborations to promote the new Jewel Changi Airport and events such as the Great Singapore Sale and Singapore Food Festival in Indonesia are also in discussion, a statement said. Keith Tan, STB’s chief executive said the partnership with Traveloka forms part of its overall strategy to better engage the visitors from key markets. As more travel research and transactions shift online, STB looks to forge new partnerships with major online travel agents to better meet the expectations of visitors. "We are pleased to work with Traveloka, which is a leading travel platform in the region, to promote Singapore as the preferred destination for travellers in Southeast Asia,” he added. Meanwhile, Yady Guitana, head of global partnership, Traveloka said the online travel market has been increasing exponentially in the recent years and Traveloka looks to enable travellers from the region to embark on adventures and discover the world with ease. "We are excited for this partnership as Singapore is one of the top outbound destinations from all of the Southeast Asian markets that Traveloka has a strong presence in. We look forward to bringing greater value to our customers through our collaboration with STB which has always been pioneering in their marketing campaigns and partnerships," he added. According to STB, Southeast Asia is an important source region for Singapore’s tourism sector, with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam among the top 12 source markets to Singapore in 2018. Tourists from these five major markets also made up a third of total visitor arrivals in 2018, contributing over SG$4.17 billion in tourism receipts. Just yesterday, STB partnered with Alibaba Group to co-develop marketing campaigns for the next three years. The partnership will kick off with a “Passion Made Possible Privileges” campaign in the second half of 2019 targeting Chinese visitors across the entire consumer journey. The three-year campaign aims to promote various tourism offerings and drive spend in Singapore in shopping, dining, hotels, sight-seeing, events and entertainment. This partnership also builds on an earlier MOU that was signed in September 2017 between STB and Alipay, an online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial, a related company of Alibaba. Read also: Singapore Tourism Board looks to lure in Malaysians Singapore Tourism Board launches SG$1 million fund to push for local content