SINGAPORE - STB’s pipe dream

TTGasia.com, Jun 15-21, 2007

INBOUND agents in Singapore are faced with a conundrum. During the recent industry conference, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) signalled they should move away from mass market visitors to target more high-yield travellers in response to the room crunch (TTG Asia, May 25-31, 2007).However, agents said rapidly rising rates and tight supply were driving even these desired visitors away from Singapore.Tour East group vice-president sales and marketing, Ms Judy Lum, said: “We have had to turn away a number of high-yield business opportunities as the hotels were not willing to allocate rooms to a committed rate because the rooms can be sold at much higher prices to walk-in corporate clients. For 2008/09, most hotels in Singapore are gunning for 30 to 80 per cent increases in their rates. Even a high-yield leisure market will find it (rate increases) hard to comprehend.”

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