SINGAPORE, April 7 — The rising single female traveller demographic is a “rich area of opportunity” as Singapore looks to attract more visitors, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) chief executive Keith Tan told a conference on Wednesday.
Singapore is a great place for young women who want to “have a great time”, spend, shop, eat and drink, but where “they can also go back to the hotel at 3am... very safely as well”, Tan said.
Tan was speaking at the STB Tourism Industry Conference 2023 held at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Industry experts whom TODAY spoke to were quick to endorse the idea given that these travellers tend to be well-heeled, are discerning and look to issues such as safety and security in a preferred destination.
“The solo female traveller is a relatively new and emerging ‘free independent traveller’ market segment,” said Dr Kevin Cheong, managing partner at Syntegrate, a tourism and destination development consultancy.
“They have discerning tastes and preferences, (and are) willing to spend and ‘live it up’ probably due to their financial independence.”
“Common criteria in their preferred destination are personal safety and security,” Dr Cheong said.
He added that “Singapore’s compactness, safety and hygiene factors would place our destination high on their preference list, including the other destination experiences and products we already offer”.
Dr Cheong believes that given their financially independent status, this demographic would lean towards seeking more luxury experiences — including spas, aesthetic treatment, fine-dining and up-market clubs.
These sentiments were echoed by Benjamin Cassim, a senior lecturer for Temasek Polytechnic’s diploma in hospitality and tourism management course.
“The ‘solo female traveller’ market is definitely a growing one,” Cassim told TODAY.
“Pre-Covid, this market was growing annually at a rate of more than 20 per cent. It is also interesting to note that females represent more than 60 per cent of all travellers, worldwide.”
Within the solo female traveller market, Cassim highlighted a key growth segment of professionals aged between about 25 and 40.
“It is therefore important to understand what are relevant factors that go into their decision making when it comes to selecting a holiday destination,” he added.
Key considerations for these travellers include: Safety, ease of accessibility, language, ease of moving around the destination and the attractiveness of surrounding destinations, he said.
Additional ways to attract travellers of this type could include wellness-related offerings and learning experiences such as cooking and art-related ones, Cassim said.
‘They want to party’
Tan made his comments during a question and answer segment at the conference.
Moderator Yeoh Siew Hoon — the editorial director of Northstar Travel Media Asia — asked both Tan and Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan about what type of traveller they saw as “Singapore’s best bets for quality travellers”.
“I see a few interesting new areas of opportunities,” said Tan.
Sharing an anecdote on his visit to India last year, he said: “I started hearing a lot about the rise of the single female traveller — single or they travel in small groups (can be mother-daughter, can be girlfriends) — but female travellers.”
“And for them, what they care about when they go to a destination: They want to party, they want to have fun but they want to feel safe. Where can they do that? In Singapore! I see that as a rich area of opportunity to tackle.”
2023: ‘The year we return to our pursuit of quality growth’
Tan also shared STB’s outlook on Singapore’s tourism for the year ahead, and beyond.
“If 2022 was the year of reopening and recovery, then 2023 must mark the year we return to our pursuit of quality growth,” he said.
To do so, STB would focus on three “R”s in the year ahead to guide the strategy of marketing destination Singapore:
• Redefining our destination
• Reconnecting with our fans
• Reinventing our industry
STB will roll out a slew of initiatives in line with these three thrusts.
These include the launch of a S$10 million (RM33 million) Singapore On-screen Fund, designed to attract global content creators to produce films and television series to attract more visitors to Singapore.
The initiatives also include the opening of Sentosa Sensoryscape and Bird Paradise, and the year-round exclusive home-porting of a Disney cruise ship in Singapore.
Another measure is the launch of STB’s refreshed Passion Made Possible brand campaign in September this year.
Why it matters
Singapore’s tourism industry and its tourist arrivals have been on a steady road to recovery after the pandemic, as global travel continues to pick up pace.
In March this year, international visitor arrivals to Singapore surpassed the one million mark in a month for the first time since the pandemic.
“We remain cautiously optimistic for our forecast, but if all goes well, we expect our tourism sector to recover to pre-pandemic levels by 2024,” said Alvin Tan in his opening address.
To support this and sustain the momentum of growth the tourism sector had seen in the past year, STB will prioritise initiatives aligned with its three “R”s.
Despite the upbeat mood over the tourism outlook, in his opening address, Tan pointed to continuing manpower challenges even though the tourism sector had rebounded to about 66,000 workers, or 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Technology was suggested as one way to work around these staffing challenges.
Emphasising safety
Speaking to TODAY, Oliver Spalding, chief strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, the agency which oversees marketing for STB, said that the team has been in talks with STB’s marketing group over an emphasis on the safety that Singapore offers travellers.
The discussions have centred on a proposal to “talk about Singapore as an incredibly safe country and that (it) shouldn’t be a sort of apologetic message or make it boring”, he said.
Spalding also backed the idea of attracting single female travellers.
“Safety actually should be something that is a really strong positive message, and it really feels like in that sense, Singapore is a perfect destination to lend that appeal to women that want to travel on their own.”
When asked if there are concrete plans in the pipeline to prioritise marketing to this demographic, Spalding said the aim of the upcoming brand launch was to bring Singapore to the world.
In the next year, STB will “pivot towards wellness and family appeal” when “ideas of safety and connectivity will come to the fore”.
TODAY has also reached out to STB for further comment.
S$10m Singapore On-screen Fund
STB also announced the launch of its joint S$10 million Singapore On-screen Fund with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), with the aim of inspiring travel to Singapore through TV series and films.
“The joint fund will support international media and entertainment partners in producing TV and film projects that reach global audiences, and shine the spotlight on destination Singapore,” the agencies said in a joint press release.
“These projects will also provide opportunities for local media enterprises and talent to work alongside global media and entertainment partners in creating content for international audiences.”
Major content producers which have consistently delivered popular content for the global market will be invited to apply for the fund.
Proposals will be evaluated on criteria including the number of local talents involved in credited roles.
“We don’t think S$10 million is such an enormous amount when we think about it at a global scale, but we don’t think it’s a small amount either,” said Justin Ang, IMDA assistant chief executive of media, innovation, communications and marketing.
“And while we cannot commit that there will be second and third versions of this fund, such strong demand will certainly encourage us to either have multiple of such funds, or to increase the fund size subsequently,” he added. — TODAY
