Singapore consumer campaign fires up interest

Singapore consumer campaign fires up interest

Marketing initiative by Teresa Machan

Tourist board seeks to promote a livelier image

Singapore can seem something of an odd man out in Asia due to its squeaky-clean image but it offers a soft landing for UK visitors to Asia and is a perfect stepping stone for first-timers en route to the more in-your-face destinations like Hong Kong or Bangkok.

To its credit, the Singapore Tourism Board has worked exceptionally hard at reinventing the destination as an exciting place for visitors by regularly rolling out comprehensive marketing campaigns with step-by-step how to and where to information.

STB’s latest marketing initiative is ‘Live it Up’, replacing the ‘Millennia Mania’ campaign which concluded at the end of August.

Targeted very much at consumers, Live it Up’s focus is on its range of world-class facilities and attractions.

Singapore Tourism Board regional director UK Nicholas Kao believes the new campaign will encourage visitors to indulge in Singapore’s young, trendy and cosmopolitan face.

“There are myriad lifestyle experiences which enable visitors to ‘live it up’ in Singapore: hiking through a rainforest, savouring curry on a banana leaf, a picnic in the park, romantic cable-car dining, enjoying a night out at the racecourse, feng-shui consultation, antique shopping in the heartland – the choices are endless. Singapore will be the place to live it up.”

Premier Holidays reports a 40% rise in sales to Singapore this year and product manager Asia David Carlaw said a similar increase is expected for 2001.

He added: “Not only are more people travelling to Singapore – either for a short break or as part of a longer itinerary to the Far East – but the length of stay in the city is also increasing and now averages three-and-a-half days.”

Premier long-haul product director Rob Haynes said the new ‘Live it Up’ slogan should help to promote Singapore’s more exciting side.

He said: “Singapore has a positive image in the UK already but it can be perceived as being a bit too clean. Now STB is saying ‘come and let your hair down in Singapore’.”

Premier’s most popular Singapore combination is Singapore/Penang with prices leading in at £870.

Kao hopes that the new campaign coupled with support from the trade will help the STB achieve an 8% increase in UK arrivals to 432,000 visitors in by the end of this year.

With the exception of 1997, a year of economic turmoil for the whole of Asia, visitor arrivals over the past five years have risen steadily year on year, with last year’s figures up 12.2% on 1998 to top 400,000 arrivals.

The average room rate last year was £49 which represents a decrease of -12.5% on 1998.

Singapore can seem something of an odd man out in Asia due to its squeaky-clean image but it offers a soft landing for UK visitors to Asia and is a perfect stepping stone for first-timers en route to the more in-your-face destinations like Hong Kong or Bangkok.

To its credit, the Singapore Tourism Board has worked exceptionally hard at reinventing the destination as an exciting place for visitors by regularly rolling out comprehensive marketing campaigns with step-by-step how to and where to information.

STB’s latest marketing initiative is ‘Live it Up’, replacing the ‘Millennia Mania’ campaign which concluded at the end of August.

Targeted very much at consumers, Live it Up’s focus is on its range of world-class facilities and attractions.

Singapore Tourism Board regional director UK Nicholas Kao believes the new campaign will encourage visitors to indulge in Singapore’s young, trendy and cosmopolitan face.

“There are myriad lifestyle experiences which enable visitors to ‘live it up’ in Singapore: hiking through a rainforest, savouring curry on a banana leaf, a picnic in the park, romantic cable-car dining, enjoying a night out at the racecourse, feng-shui consultation, antique shopping in the heartland – the choices are endless. Singapore will be the place to live it up.”

Premier Holidays reports a 40% rise in sales to Singapore this year and product manager Asia David Carlaw said a similar increase is expected for 2001.

He added: “Not only are more people travelling to Singapore – either for a short break or as part of a longer itinerary to the Far East – but the length of stay in the city is also increasing and now averages three-and-a-half days.”

Premier long-haul product director Rob Haynes said the new ‘Live it Up’ slogan should help to promote Singapore’s more exciting side.

He said: “Singapore has a positive image in the UK already but it can be perceived as being a bit too clean. Now STB is saying ‘come and let your hair down in Singapore’.”

Premier’s most popular Singapore combination is Singapore/Penang with prices leading in at £870.

Kao hopes that the new campaign coupled with support from the trade will help the STB achieve an 8% increase in UK arrivals to 432,000 visitors in by the end of this year.

With the exception of 1997, a year of economic turmoil for the whole of Asia, visitor arrivals over the past five years have risen steadily year on year, with last year’s figures up 12.2% on 1998 to top 400,000 arrivals.

The average room rate last year was £49 which represents a decrease of -12.5% on 1998.

Boat Quay: ideal for scenic dining

Enter the dragon: the Singapore Tourist Board is targeting an 8% rise in UK visitors by the end of this year

Live it Up – highlights of the campaign

Singapore is a compact, safe and extremely easy to get around destination. Visitors will have little trouble on foot but may opt for the efficient public transport system. English is also better spoken in Singapore than in most other Asian destinations.

All of these factors make it easy to sell Singapore, either as part of a wider package or as an independent tour.

A multi-cultural tropical island, it offers something for most budgets and age groups.

One of Singapore’s biggest selling points is its blend of Asian cultures and peoples including Malay, Chinese, Indians and the indigenous Peranakans.

A number of differing aspects form part of the Live it Up experience, which include the following:

Dining

Eating out is synonymous with Singapore and is something of a national pastime. As a very clean city, this is probably one of the best spots in Asia for the uninitiated to sample the excellent and ubiquitous street hawker food.

Singapore’s range of cuisine includes Cantonese, Malay, Indonesian, Peranakan and Eurasian. Besides hawker stalls, there is a wide choice of modern, trendy restaurants, al fresco dining at Boat Quay’s transformed shophouses, as well as top-of-the-range hotel restaurants serving western and Asian food. STB’s Flavours of New Asia-Singapore food tour traces the city’s gastronomic heritage from the origins of the spice trading route to the current merge of cultures and cuisine.

The three-and-a-half-hour tour which culminates in a gourmet meal typical to one of the local cultures costs £13 for adults and £6 for children.

Arts and Heritage

For Art’s Sake is a new festival launched last month and offers a selection of theatre, music and art and sculpture exhibitions. Also on the cultural agenda is an open-air ballet under the stars.

Art galleries and museums include the Singapore Art Museum and two self-guided walking tours are being planned. The Orchard Road Arts Walk incorporates some of Asia’s finest art galleries. Singapore’s first world-class dedicated arts centre, the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay will be operational by July 2002 and will feature a 1,800-seat concert hall, a lyric theatre, outdoor performing areas and a retail complex.

Plans are underway for a Chinatown Heritage Centre, offering an insight into Chinatown and its people. Completion date is the middle of next year.

Nature

Singapore Zoo has introduced two exhibits aimed at letting guests experience and learn more about tropical rainforests.

Fragile Forest is a major ecological rainforest exhibit featuring a dazzling variety of insects and other invertibrates.

A huge outdoor flight exhibit showcases butterflies, two-toed sloths, blackheaded golden lion tamarins and various species of birds, reptiles and fish.

The Treetops Trail is an ecological display of some of the animals inhabiting the Indo-Malayan rainforests.

From a 65-metre long wooden walkway stretching over the water, visitors can enjoy a panoramic view and get up close to red langurs (leaf monkeys).

Ethnic and night-time Singapore

It takes more than a stopover to really see and do Singapore’s ethnic attractions. Those who are short of time should make a beeline for Chinatown, Little India and Arab Street. Try the In Harmony with Feng Shui tour to really get in tune with local life.

Whet your appetite with a twilight bumboat ride along the Singapore River followed by dinner in one of the Chinese shophouses at Boat Quay, packed with bars and restaurants, or dinner at trendy Holland Village. Nightspots include a number of clubs, pubs and discos. And you don’t need kids to have an excuse to visit the 1,200 nocturnal animals on the Night Safari.

Streetlife: areas such as Bugis street offer superb potential for open-air dining

Snake out: new exhibits show off some of the area’s reptiles