The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is launching a Lunar New Year
promotion to entice more ASEAN tourists to Singapore.
From 15 January to 15 March 2003, visitors from Indonesia, Thailand, the
Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam will receive Hong Baos with special offers
when they book a tour package to Singapore with participating travel agents.
In Malaysia, the Hong Baos will be distributed directly to potential visitors at a
consumer fair and through the media.
The Hong Baos offer vouchers entitling visitors to festive goodies, including
meat floss, salmon yusheng and mandarin oranges. In addition, they will enjoy
special discounts at selected tourist attractions, F&B establishments and retail
outlets.
The Hong Baos also offer several halal items, like halal curry buns and
pineapple tarts. The vouchers for these items will be marked with the internationally recognised halal logo.
Visitors have only to present the vouchers to the participating outlets to enjoy
the free goodies and discounts.
The promotion underscores the importance of ASEAN as a key market for
Singapore, said Mr Lee Loong Koon, STB's Area Director for ASEAN and South Asia. It aims to boost tourist arrivals and tourism receipts from
ASEAN.
The promotion is the latest effort by STB to draw more visitors from the region.
In November last year, it launched the Singapore Visitor Kit, which offered
tourists from the region free admission vouchers to key attractions and meal
and shopping vouchers at selected F&B and retail outlets.
Tourists from ASEAN formed the biggest group of visitors to Singapore in
2001. That year, Singapore welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors from the
region, a jump of almost 4 per cent.
Mr Lee added: "Having such a promotion during the Lunar New Year season
will also create greater awareness of the many activities and events, like the
Chingay parade, the Singapore River Hong Bao carnival and the Lunar New Year Light-up, which makes Singapore the place to be during this festive
period.''
The promotion will also be reinforced by an ASEAN-wide television
advertisement campaign featuring Singaporean celebrity Fann Wong.
Fann, who has made a name for herself through many local and overseas
productions, is already fronting Singapore's high visibility advertisement
campaign in China.
Now, for the first time, Fann will be highlighting to Singapore's neighbours in
the region the many exciting experiences one can have in the city-state, from
the wide variety of food, great shopping, vibrant arts and entertainment scene
to Singapore's unique multicultural heritage.
"We are once again very happy to have Fann as our tourism ambassador and
with Fann being a familiar face to many in the region, we are confident this
advertisement campaign will be a successful one,'' said Mr Lee. |