Six top-performing wholesale product managers from Australia, a key inbound source market, participated in a five-day educational trip, crafted in collaboration with the Singapore Tourism Board to stimulate the recovery of travel and tourism in Asia Pacific.
Updated: 29 Sep 2022. Watch the full video
WebBeds continues to focus on stimulating the recovery of travel and tourism in Asia Pacific by teaming up with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to stage a five-day action-packed fam trip enabling top Australian product managers to rediscover the wonders of the “Lion City”.
Hosted from 29th August to 2nd September 2022, the “WebBeds X Singapore Tourism Board Familiarisation Trip” selected six of WebBeds’ highest producing wholesale product managers from Australia to visit Singapore. For many of the participants, this was their first chance to explore this vibrant Southeast Asian city since the removal of travel restrictions, and the immersive itinerary allowed the product managers to find out what’s changed since their last trip.
Australia is one of Singapore’s most important visitor source markets. From January to July 2022, 193,750 Australians travelled to Singapore¹ – the fourth largest market. Prior to the global pandemic in 2019, Singapore welcomed 1.14 million Australians², so the rebound is clearly well underway. The travel trade is playing a pivotal role in this upward trend; WebBeds data shows a 15% jump in business from Australia compared to the same period pre-pandemic, so this fam trip provided the perfect opportunity to further educate and inspire.
The six travel professionals – Yvonne Chapple, Contracting Manager, Flight Centre; Stephanie Jones, Product Manager, HOOT Holidays; Dennise El-Kazzi, Travel & Product Advisor, Entire Travel; Michael Pollak, Product & Partnerships Manager, Play Travel; Kellie Ann Smith, Product Manager, Room Res; and Jake Chiem, Managing Director of Product, Travelcation Group – were joined by Anthony Valeriano, Manager, and Kerrin Trenorden, Marketing Representative – Victoria, STB Oceania; and Grant Sumich, Head of Commercial, Pacific, WebBeds.
The itinerary was carefully crafted by WebBeds and STB to enable the product managers to rediscover the city’s most popular attractions and uncover new activities and experiences. Following their arrival and orientation, the second day focused on the leisure island of Sentosa, including a powerboat adventure, a site inspection of Resorts World Sentosa, a visit to SkyHelix Sentosa and more. Day three was dedicated to culture with a trip to Kampong Gelam, Singapore’s Malay-Arab quarter, the colourful shophouses of Joo Chiat and a cruise on the Singapore River, culminating with an exclusive VIP tour of the famous Singapore Night Safari.
On day four, the product managers were able to explore one of Singapore’s newest and most iconic attractions, Gardens by the Bay, with its soaring illuminated trees and the breath-taking canopy walk, OCBC Skyway. The afternoon also included a tour of the city’s Museum of Ice Cream, before an elegant evening dinner at the National Gallery. Throughout the five-day familiarisation, guests had the chance to stay at or inspect some of Singapore’s finest hotels, including Oasia Resort Sentosa, PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay, Goodwood Park Hotel and The Capitol Kempinski Hotel, plus exclusive workshops and dining experiences.
Stephanie Yong, Area Director, STB Oceania, commented: “Australia has always been one of our most important source markets, and we’re delighted to see more Aussies starting to return this year. Singapore has been busy during the pandemic downtime welcoming many new experiences to join familiar destination favourites, so it’s important to ensure that our travel partners rediscover what Singapore now has on offer. WebBeds was the perfect partner for this fam trip to update product managers, and we would like to thank them for making it such a success. We’re confident that this initiative will help to accelerate the return of more Australians to Singapore in the coming months and even years, to come.”
Grant Sumich, Head of Commercial, Pacific, WebBeds, said: “WebBeds has a long-established presence in Australia and the six product managers who joined us on this trip are among our most important partners. The fact that they took the opportunity to join this event at a time when the industry is still facing challenges shows the strength of our relationships. We hope that the diverse itinerary and handpicked hotels were a suitable incentive for the product managers and provided a compelling proposition for a variety of Australian markets. The feedback so far has been great.”
KS Sun, President, Asia Pacific, WebBeds, added: “We were delighted to collaborate with STB once again, as WebBeds continues to drive the recovery of travel and hospitality across Asia Pacific. Following the joint webinar we hosted in April, this fully immersive fam trip represented the next logical step in our efforts to update the market and ramp up the visitor revival. We will continue to build on our strong relationship with STB.”
Jake Chiem, Managing Director of Product, Travelcation Group was full of praise for the event: “It was an amazing fam trip with a strong selection of activities. My personal favourite was the VIP buggy ride at the Night Safari and the chance to visit the Gardens by the Bay. The hotels and dining experiences were also very memorable, as they allowed the group to sample Singapore’s diverse culture and cuisine. I now feel much better equipped to promote Singapore as a destination to my clients.”
The Singapore fam trip marked the latest phase of WebBeds’ mission to boost global travel and encourage cross-border collaboration. The company will continue to re-energise travel, tourism and hospitality in Asia Pacific with more events in the coming months. Stay tuned for further updates!
Download Press Release: WebBeds partners with Singapore Tourism Board to stimulate Singapore’s travel rebound with immersive fam trip for Australian product managers
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