Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Traveloka, Southeast Asia’s largest technology company in the travel and lifestyle industry, have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to promote Singapore as a preferred destination for visitors from five major Southeast Asian markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The MOC, which was signed at the sidelines of the Tourism Industry Conference 2019 in Singapore, will cover three broad areas – information sharing, marketing campaigns, and content generation. This is the first strategic partnership between STB and Traveloka, and also the first time that STB is signing a pan-SEA partnership.
The cross-sharing of knowledge between STB and Traveloka is expected to generate new insights that will enable STB and Traveloka to target Southeast Asian travellers with more relevant products and experiences, as well as to enhance their overall experience in Singapore.
“STB’s partnership with Traveloka forms part of our overall strategy to better engage our visitors from our key markets. As more travel research and transactions shift online, STB will forge new partnerships with major online travel agents to better meet the expectations of visitors. We are pleased to work with Traveloka, which is a leading travel platform in the region, to promote Singapore as the preferred destination for travellers in Southeast Asia,” said Mr. Keith Tan, STB’s Chief Executive, who represented STB at the MOC signing ceremony with Traveloka.
Traveloka was represented by Mr. Yady Guitana, Head of Global Partnership, Traveloka. He said: “The online travel market has been increasing exponentially in recent years. As the largest technology company in travel and lifestyle industry in Southeast Asia, Traveloka enables travellers from the region to embark on adventures and discover the world with ease. We are excited for this partnership as Singapore is one of the top outbound destinations from all of the Southeast Asian markets that Traveloka has a strong presence in. We look forward to bringing greater value to our customers through our collaboration with STB which has always been pioneering in their marketing campaigns and partnerships.”
The signing of the MOC signals STB and Traveloka’s commitment to co-invest in marketing campaigns to market Singapore in the five Southeast Asian markets. Prior to this MOC, STB and Traveloka had collaborated on a campaign in February 2019 in Indonesia to promote Singapore activities and attractions, paving a strong foundation for greater partnership between the two parties. Further collaborations to promote the new Jewel Changi Airport and events such as the Great Singapore Sale and Singapore Food Festival in Indonesia are in discussion.
In addition, STB will provide relevant and up-to-date content about Singapore to Traveloka from STB’s Tourism Information and Services Hub (TIH). Both parties will collaborate on making more Singapore activities and experiences available for online booking via Traveloka’s regional platforms. STB aims to increase the exposure of Singapore’s offerings by various Singapore businesses and provide more options for travellers to create a personalised itinerary based on their interests.
Southeast Asia is an important source region for Singapore’s tourism sector, with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam among the top twelve source markets to Singapore in 2018. Tourists from these five major markets made up a third of total visitor arrivals in 2018, contributing over S$4.17 billion in tourism receipts. The Philippines is the 7th top source market for Singapore and hit record high arrivals in 2018 with over 778,000 visitors from the Philippines, a 5.65% growth from 2017.