The Singapore Tourism Board has issued an update on its hygiene certification programme in a bid to restore agents’ confidence in the Asian destination.
SG Clean – an accreditation scheme that verifies cleanliness standards across hotels, shopping malls, attractions, restaurants and bars – was launched in February and rolled out to tourism businesses in March, as the coronavirus crisis began to impact Singapore. To date, 13,000 SG Clean certificates have been issued of which over 800 are for tourism establishments, and there are plans to bring a total of 32,000 establishments into the scheme.
Carrie Kwik, the Singapore Tourism Board’s executive director for Europe, said: “Singapore Clean is one of the cornerstones of our recovery programme. Health and safety and hygiene will be even more important for the future traveller in their decision making.
“It’s an accreditation programme to help people have the confidence to go out and enjoy Singapore again. It will become part of the ‘new normal.’
“We hope that as we share more information about Singapore Clean, that agents will recognise that our standards of hygiene and sanitation are good. With these new things we have put in place, it will allow their clients more confidence in choosing Singapore.”
Kwik said a marketing fund worth SGD$20million (£11.4million) had also been launched to help stimulate demand for domestic and international travel “at the right time”.
She added: “We are working closely with travel industry partners. We want to co-fund some of the work that will help drive demand when bookings return.
“Cruise is definitely one area where we will continue to place business. Singapore is the cruise hub of the region and an important part of our tourism plan.
“A lot of our work will be with partners like Royal Caribbean and Genting [owner of Crystal Cruises] to make sure that the cruising target segment understands what health and safety [measures] have been put in place and to assure them that we are still a compelling cruise product, when the time is right. When the industry comes back, that will continue to be an important customer segment for the UK.”
The UK is the number one market for arrivals to Singapore in Europe, with 607,000 visitors in 2019.