According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), visitor arrivals in the first 5 months of 2020 plunged 65.7 percent. In May alone, the year-on-year decline in visitor arrivals was 99.9 per cent. This has seriously impacted the tourism and hospitality sector resulting in many F&B, retailing, tour operators and leisure businesses struggling due to a demand drought brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even Resorts World Sentosa (RSW), one of the established and popular tourism and leisure destinations in Singapore, announced staff layoffs despite partial easing of social restrictions in phase 2.

Tourism’s direct contribution to Singapore’s GDP in the last 2 decades has been in the range of 4-4.5% based on data from Statista. While Singapore has enjoyed a robust growth of tourists peaking at 19.11 million visitors in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a deep and widespread disruption to the sustainability of the global tourism and travel industry with limited upside for the next two years.

This makes Singapore especially vulnerable due to its heavy reliance on international tourists to support its world-class tourism and hospitality eco-system and infrastructure. It is time to pivot and mitigate the risks of over-dependence on overseas visitors. For this to happen, STB and its tourism partners will need to re-imagine and re-calibrate the domestic tourism business model for Singaporeans across various demographic and interest groups.

Safety First for the Paranoid Economy

In what I call the paranoid economy, it is important for the tourism and hospitality eco-system to collaborate in a transparent manner and demonstrate strong end-to-end commitment to safety, hygiene and disinfecting protocols for all domestic attractions, precincts and events.

This requires clear and regular communication of safe management practices at different tourism and lifestyle destinations to guarantee the psychological and social safety of visitors. Additionally, all tourism partners must work collectively to proactively address the weakest links in the safety chain to minimize the risk of infection spread.

STB’s recent development of the Safe Business Event Risk Management Framework is a timely and appropriate intervention for the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) sector. Similar frameworks should also be developed for all attractions and destinations.

Selling the Brand Inside

Unlike marketing Singapore to international tourists, branding to locals will be more challenging but rewarding if done well; and merely appealing to Singaporean’s patriotic feelings will not be enough to sustain domestic tourism.

It requires not only a deep understanding and appreciation of what locals value in terms of the content and quality of experiences but also communicating to Singaporeans in a way that resonates and fosters pride in our rich history and cultural heritage and the diversity of fun and exciting things we can explore or re-discover.  This in turn will encourage advocacy and evangelism among our citizens and permanent residents within and outside of Singapore.

A 360-degree multimedia and omnichannel branding approach supported by rich, relevant, and localized content as well as influencers and celebrities will be key to reaching out and connecting with locals from different walks of life. It will also be crucial to continuously engage with brand communities comprising of fans with special interests in Singaporean history, culture, architecture, music, cuisines, hobbies, biodiversity, sports and entertainment, to better understand current and evolving preferences so as to deliver more targeted marketing messages and offerings.

On 22nd July, STB announced that together with Enterprise Singapore and Sentosa Development Corporation, it will roll out a $45m SingaporeRediscovers campaign over 9 months to revive the local tourism industry with packages and deals for locals including tours to the heartlands and promoting precincts such as Chinatown, Kampong Glam and Little India as mini-holiday destinations. Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chu Sing emphasized that this is vital to Singapore and is part of broader medium-term plan for the tourism industry to reinvent and redesign its offerings.

Building a Scalable, Data-Driven and Resilient Tourism Eco-System

STB and every stakeholder in the tourism and hospitality sector must work collaboratively, supported by data and rich consumer insights to create and curate experiences that Singaporeans will continue to value and enjoy for today and the foreseeable future.

It is incumbent on STB to strengthen its collaboration and engagement with key stakeholders in its tourism partner eco-system to build a data rich environment to better understand the Singaporean consumer journey and to effectively target key micro-moments that will increase the probability of patronage of local attractions and life-style businesses.

It will be a mistake to assume that cheaper pricing and reducing capacity to ensure safe distancing will be enough to make Singaporeans want to  patronize local attractions regularly or to take up staycation packages without a concerted effort at refreshing, reimagining and enriching the content and experiences.

A recent study by Google and Phocuswright revealed that about 57% of the respondents wanted tourism and travel organizations to provide tailored information based on personal preferences and past behaviours, and interestingly, a third of these respondents were willing to pay a higher price for personalized or customized the experiences.

Furthermore, to encourage repeat visits and ensure financial viability, various attractions and destinations will need to invest in periodic renovations, ensure high levels of service quality and offer value bundles such as discounts and promotions for F&B and retail outlets to increase perceived value and average spend per customer.

There will also be an urgent need to review and make changes to the operating and revenue management models while investing in digitalization and automation in improve productivity and reduce costs. This is to mitigate the economic risks of operating at reduced capacity and hours for the near term while increasing spending on safe management practices, thematic promotions and localized marketing campaigns

Will Singaporeans bite? Given the heightened pandemic risks and uncertainty of travel due to border restrictions and quarantine measures in the near future, locals will increasingly look for opportunities to vacation and spend more at home provided all the tourism, leisure, hospitality and F&B players continue to deliver novel and personalized experiences that Singaporeans value.  In addition to appealing to locals’ sense of discovery, tourism and hospitality partners will need to effectively leverage on social media to share exciting and compelling localized content that appeal to various demographics.

Both locals and tourists in the post-pandemic era will be more demanding not only in the quality and diversity of experiences that Singapore can curate and offer as a desired travel destination but also in its ability to ensure that our safe management practices are institutionalized and conscientiously implemented at every touchpoint of their journey. As such, building a scalable, data-driven and resilient tourism and hospitality sector with strong domestic patronage will strengthen Singapore’s competitive position as one of the premier tourism destinations in the world.