Building on the three-year Memorandum of Understanding signed in November 2020, Trip.com Group and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) are deepening their collaboration across key markets including Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong, while expanding their partnership to include new markets Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia.

Trip.com Group Chief Marketing Officer Sun Bo met STB’s Assistant Chief Executive for International Group Juliana Kua in Singapore last month, during which both discussed various topics, including enhancing the areas of collaboration under the three-year MOU signed in late 2020.

The reopening of borders in the region in recent months has led to a strong growth in Singapore’s international arrivals – with 418,310 visitors in May, up from 295,100 in April. With pent-up demand being one of the main drivers of the travel recovery, Trip.com Group will deepen its collaboration with STB to promote Singapore to travellers from key markets through a series of initiatives, including marketing campaigns, public relations activities, KOLs’ reviews and promotions through Trip.com Group’s brands including Trip.com and Ctrip.

Mr Sun Bo said: “The past two years have been challenging for the tourism industry across Asia, but we are deeply encouraged and appreciative of Singapore’s support for local tourism businesses. These include the launch of the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers campaign which Trip.com was part of, as well as the timely announcements relating to the reopening of borders such as the previous Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme and the current Vaccinated Travel Framework.

“Trip.com Group is excited to deepen our strong relationship and collaboration with STB to further facilitate and promote travel to Singapore. This is a beautiful country which offers different unique experiences for various groups of tourists, and Trip.com Group will launch specific campaigns and initiatives in the coming months across the key markets where there exist a strong demand for travel. Based on the recent growths in visitors’ arrivals to Singapore, there is reason to be optimistic that inbound arrivals will rebound to pre-pandemic levels, and Trip.com Group is committed to supporting STB in every way possible.”

Ms Juliana Kua, Assistant Chief Executive (International Group) STB, said: “We have worked closely with Trip.com Group especially over the last two years during the pandemic to maintain Singapore’s mindshare amongst regional travellers. With the resumption of travel, we are delighted to deepen our partnership with Trip.com Group, which has a growing network of services, users and data. We will tap on these to showcase Singapore’s refreshed destination offerings, and encourage travellers to reimagine travel to Singapore as part of our SingapoReimagine global marketing campaign.”

Strengthening Connections within Asia

Leveraging Trip.com Group’s fast-growing global network as a leading international online travel services provider, and its ability to draw insights on traveller behaviour and needs from its large user base, both parties will work together on a series of marketing campaigns in several Southeast Asian markets, as well as South Korea and Hong Kong in the coming months.

Among various initiatives, Trip.com Group and STB will also curate and deliver engaging content via Trip.com’s app and website to showcase the Singapore destination story and to position the city-state as a safe and compelling destination of choice for travelers.

Going forward, Trip.com Group and STB will also continue to identify and launch targeted programmes to promote and position Singapore as an ideal destination for various activities, including as a sanctuary for sustainability, haven for urban wellness, paradise of evolving flavours and world of possibilities for travellers to experience Singapore in new and unexpected ways.

Consumers in the various markets can also look forward to attractive travel promotions. These will be rolled out in phases after taking into consideration the respective market’s readiness to travel and prevailing travel policies.

For a start, joint campaigns to promote Singapore as an attractive travel destination will be launched in South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines over the next one week, including attractive deals and collaborations with travel KOLs such as travel_bellauri and im0gil from South Korea and CHAILAIBACKPACKER from Thailand who will share their insights and recommendations on exciting and unexpected itineraries that visitors can experience in Singapore.

Mr Sun Bo said: “Singapore has always been known as a food and shopping paradise, and that’s not a surprise given the wide range of retail offerings and tasty dishes such as Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa and Chili Crab, among others. Yet, Singapore also offers new and unique experiences such as wellness and nature activities. In addition, many tourism businesses in Singapore had refreshed their offerings and introduced new ones during the past two years. Trip.com Group looks forward to working closely with STB and our local partners to present the beauty of Singapore and its uniquely local experiences to the global community in the coming months.”

Trip.com is nominated as Asia’s Leading Online Travel Agency 2021, while Singapore Tourism Board is nominated as Asia’s Leading City Break Destination 2022, Asia’s Leading Destination 2022, Asia’s Leading Festival & Event Destination 2022, Asia’s Leading Meetings & Conference Destination 2022 and Asia’s Leading Sports Tourism Destination 2022 by World Travel Awards.