The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is to roll out a SG$90 million (US$60 million) initiative to stimulate demand in the tourism sector.
The country’s Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, S Iswaran, announced in parliament the new initiative called ‘Building on Opportunities to Strengthen Tourism’, or ‘BOOST’, ChannelNews Asia reported.
Iswaran said the key initiative under BOOST was a marketing campaign with the theme “2009 Reasons to Enjoy Singapore”.
“Travel patterns are expected to change in the current climate with a switch from long-haul to shorter-haul holidays. The campaign will target this potential higher intra-regional traffic from our key regional markets,” Iswaran was quoted saying, adding that the STB would continue to work on attracting more events to Singapore over the next two years.
It would target MICE events that are aligned to Singapore’s economic priorities such as digital media and environmental technology as well as other specific segments that are resilient in the global downturn.
As part of BOOST, STB will also provide more support for businesses to train and upgrade the skills of their employees under a tourism training scheme.
Singapore expects visitor arrivals to drop as much as 11% this year, the report said.
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