Singapore Tourism Board on 8-City Road Show in Indonesia

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has launched its 8-city road show in Indonesia, promoting its Singapore Roars! campaign and key medical and educational tourism products under the respective branding of Singapore Medicine and Singapore Education. Stretching from 9 September to 19 October, the road show kicks off in Pekanbaru, continuing through Palembang, Semarang, Makassar, Balikpapan, Surabaya, Medan, and ending in Jakarta.

This extensive and interactive road show is the first of its kind in Indonesia, a key market for Singapore. The road show will showcase Singapore's fascinating attractions, exciting events, glorious food and quality services to Indonesians.

For each of the road show cities, various activities will be organised including travel marts; trade and consumer seminars; and entertainment programmes for visitors. Special packages for travel to Singapore will also be offered. Driven by the STB, the show will elicit participation from various partners from Singapore's tourism industry including sightseeing and attractions, healthcare, education as well as MICE experts.

"The road show aims to bring the exciting sights, smells and sounds of Singapore right to the doors of Indonesians in the 8 key cities. We are also working with key travel partners in Indonesia to present the best roaring deals in town in an effort to encourage Indonesians to come to Singapore," said, Regional Director, ASEAN (Islands), Mr Aloysius Arlando.

"The recent probable SARS case has not altered the plans for the road show, as the World Health Organisation has said that it has no plans to issue a travel advisory against Singapore. Singapore's Ministry of Health and the STB do not believe there is any cause for alarm amongst visitors or the general public as the case appears to be single and isolated, and of low public health risk. Singapore has remained vigilant against SARS and has strong and effective procedures in place for just such an eventuality." commented Mr Aloysius Arlando.

Special packages are being presented at discounted rates on top of the "Roaring Great Deals" that are presently available for all visitors to Singapore. "Roaring Great Deals" is the free one-for-one booklets presently being offered to all visitors to Singapore from now to the end of the year. It includes up to 50% discount at Food & Beverage Outlets, for Spa Treatments and Shopping Centres, as well as for admission to key tourist attractions in Singapore.

Seminars on healthcare and education in Singapore have also been specially arranged as these services are sought after by the Indonesian market. These seminars will give industry members a better idea of the products and services available and that will help them better package their deals. At the same time, the consumers will be made more aware of the healthcare and education offerings open to them.

"We recognise that the healthcare and education sectors are of greatest interest to the Indonesian market. The road show will provide a perfect platform for both buyers and sellers to network and develop new and innovative packages and products for the local market, " added Mr Aloysius  Arlando.

The new branding of Singapore Education reflects Singapore's first world standing and reputation for quality and reliability in the area of education. Singapore has some of the best institutions from around the world, with names like INSEAD, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Johns Hopkins and the Chicago Graduate School of Business. It is also relatively affordable to study in Singapore which offers a wide range of courses ranging for the arts, science, and business through to wealth management.

Each year, more than 150,000 people from around the world, of which about 50% come from Indonesia, travel to Singapore for medical care. Singapore provides a comprehensive range of healthcare services from health screening, medical wellness, aesthetic treatments to speciality areas like cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, gynaecology and oncology (cancer treatment).

For the first time, under the branding of Singapore Medicine, various healthcare providers in Singapore are coming together to showcase their services at the road show. Specifically, from 1 Oct to 19 Oct 2003 in Medan, Surabaya and Jakarta, the healthcare providers will provide information on the various treatments and the world-class facilities and expertise available in Singapore. The hospitals' representatives will also offer attractive healthcare packages during the road show.

Indonesia remains Singapore's key market. With over 130,000 visitors in the month of July 2003, up 34% from June 2003, Indonesia remains a hotspot to help Singapore achieve the target of 6 million visitors by end 2003. Indonesians' primary activities in Singapore include shopping, dining and seeking medical treatments. In the same vein, approximately 1.3 million Singaporeans visited Indonesia in 2002 and Singapore has been Indonesia's top market for several years. This reflects the healthy state of tourism flow  between Indonesia and Singapore and one, which is set to grow stronger year after year.

The STB hopes that, the road show will ignite a new buzz and inject top of mind awareness among Indonesians of Singapore's appeal as a top holiday destination and a premier city for quality healthcare and education services.