Five-day fam trip allows leading travel trade delegates to explore the Lion City’s iconic attractions and all-new activities, plus VIP experiences and five-star hotels.
WebBeds has joined forces with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) once again to invite its eight best-performing product managers from Oceania to the Lion City for a highly immersive, educational, and inspiring five-day fam trip. This marks the second collaboration between these two like-minded partners following the inaugural edition in 2022, which played an important role in stimulating the recovery of Singapore’s tourism and hospitality sectors in the post-pandemic era.
Staged from 2nd to 6th September 2024, the “WebBeds X Singapore Tourism Board Familiarisation Trip” selected WebBeds’ eight highest producing wholesale product managers from Australia and New Zealand to visit Singapore. The STB’s diverse itinerary included the opportunity to uncover this Southeast Asian gateway city’s top attractions, from dazzling modern wonders such as Marina Bay Sands, the ArtScience Museum, and a VIP tour of Universal Studios Singapore, to cultural icons like Chinatown, the UNESCO-listed Singapore Botanic Gardens, and Lau Pa Sat, the vibrant hawker centre.
Group Photo at Chinatown Singapore
Delegates were also able to experience Singapore’s newest attractions such as Sensoryscape, a 30,000-square metre multi-sensory journey on Sentosa Island, Hyperdrive, Asia’s first gamified electric go-kart circuit, and Axe Factor, the axe throwing activity. Singapore is also a haven of world-class gastronomy, and guests were able to discover some of the destination’s most creative culinary venues, including Tipsy Unicorn, the chic beach club, Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie, the artisanal chocolatier, Candlenut, a Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant, and a sunset meal aboard the Royal Albatross Dinner Cruise boat.
Group Photo at HyperDrive
And of course, the product managers were able to check-in to some of Singapore’s leading hotels and resorts, with overnight stays at The Outpost Hotel Sentosa and Grand Park City Hall, site inspections at Peninsula Excelsior Singapore, A Wyndham Hotel, Conrad Singapore Orchard, and Artyzen Singapore.
Group Activity at Mr. Bucket Chocolatery
Australia is an important visitor source market for Singapore. From January to July 2024, 663,970 Australians travelled to Singapore¹, an 8.6% increase year-on-year. This follows a 91.8% post-pandemic surge in 2023, when 1.08m Australians visited the Lion City, making it Singapore’s fifth largest global market. Demand from New Zealand is also growing rapidly, with 90,270 arrivals² in the year to July 2024, marking a 19.8% jump compared to the same seven-month period last year, boosted by additional air capacity³.
Group Lunch with WebBeds and MBS Team
The eight travel professionals included Yvonne Chapple, Asia Team Leader & Contracting Manager, Flight Centre Travel Group; Stephanie Jones, Product Manager, Hoot Holidays; Tina Millington, Travel & Product Advisor, Entire Travel Group; Shona Bray, Product Manager – Asia & North America, House of Travel New Zealand; Mark Brooker, Head of Wholesale, Itravel; Amber Fildes, Marketing Manager, BKB Holidays; Michael Zhang, Head of Sales & Partnerships, Webjet; and Raphael Gong, Campaign Manager, Luxury Escapes. They were joined by Stacy Harsh, Sales Manager – Pacific, WebBeds, and Anthony Valeriano, Senior Manager – Oceania, STB.
Oliver Chong, Executive Director, International Group HQ & Oceania, commented: “Australia and New Zealand are important markets and WebBeds has been a key partner in keeping Singapore top-of-mind amongst consumers from this region. After a very successful collaboration back in 2022, we’re glad to bring top-performing travel managers back to Singapore to explore its diverse attractions and experiences, as they play a key role in inspiring travellers to consider Singapore as their next holiday destination.”
Yvonne Chapple from Flight Centre Travel Group said: “Singapore is such a fast-changing destination, so it was great to be able to discover what’s new in the city. I know Singapore very well, but this itinerary gave me a unique chance to meet with the STB team, get the most up-to-date advice and information, find out what’s changed since I was last here, and take part in activities that I can recommend to my clients. I would like to thank the STB and WebBeds for the opportunity to be part of this amazing experience.”
KS Sun, President, Asia Pacific, WebBeds, added: “We were delighted to deepen our relationship with STB with this highly insightful and immersive fam trip. WebBeds is committed to stimulating travel and tourism across Asia Pacific, and initiatives like these empower our partners to drive business across the region. Australia and New Zealand are key source markets for Singapore with huge potential for future growth, evidenced by the 30% increase in year-on-year bookings; we look forward to strengthening our ties with the STB to capitalize on this momentum.”
The Singapore fam trip marked the latest phase of WebBeds’ mission to boost global travel and encourage cross-border collaboration. For more information, please visit www.webbeds.com.
References:
Read now: Press Release – WebBeds X STB Fam Trip 2024
For more information about this story, please contact apac.marketing@webbeds.com