The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announces the appointment of Mr. Vimal Harnal as Regional Director South and West Asia. Based in STB's office in Mumbai, Mr Harnal will be responsible for the STB's marketing activities for South Asia and West Asia. He assumes his new position from 31 March. Mr Chang Chee Pey, most recently STB's Director South Asia, will return to STB headquarters in Singapore as Manager, Competitive Analysis Department.
This will be the second time Mr Harnal is posted to Mumbai. Mr Harnal was first posted to Mumbai in 1993. He returned to STB HQ in 1999 to serve as Assistant Director covering South Asia, West Asia and Africa.
Mr Harnal said: "The South and West Asia regions hold strong growth potential. I look forward to establishing even stronger relationships with our partners in the industry to ensure that Singapore remains a top choice for the visitors from these regions."
For the past decade, Singapore has been the top destination in the Asia Pacific region for visitors from India. It is also Singapore's largest market in the South Asian region. Arrivals from India into Singapore have been showing an average annual growth of 10.7 per cent between 1996 and 2001. Indian visitors spent an estimated $545 million in 2000, almost twice the amount of what they spent in 1995.
In West Asia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the two largest visitor-generating markets, accounting for more than 55 per cent of traffic from the region in 2000. Visitor arrivals from West Asia grew at an average annual growth rate of about nine per cent over the period 1997 to 2001.
During Mr Chang's three-year term of office, Singapore recorded its highest ever visitor arrivals from India in 2000 with more than 346,000 visitors, or an almost 20 percent growth over 1999. In October last year, STB Mumbai appointed a Marketing Representative for North India as part of its strategy to increase
Singapore's presence and intensify marketing activities in North India. |
