Welcome, the new Indian leisure traveller

With India emerging as Singapore’s fifth largest source of visitors, the Singapore Tourism Board is setting its sights on growing the market and attracting more leisure travellers.

Last year, visitor arrivals from India grew by 24% over 2004 and the STB is tipping higher growth this year, pointing to an increasing trend in more Indians making leisure trips abroad.

According to tour operators in India, new travel packages that cover places such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand/Indonesia, are gaining in popularity.

Events such as the Dubai Shopping Festival and similar festivals in Singapore are also drawing many Indian tourists, they say, and an added appeal of these places is that Indian food is available almost anywhere in Singapore and in larger Malaysian cities such as Kuala Lumpur.

Sri Lanka has emerged as a major tourist attraction with a short travelling time for many from Bangalore. More than 40% of tourists visiting Sri Lanka are from India.

Travel agencies operating in Bangalore estimate at least 50,000 to 75,000 people from the Indian city went abroad as tourists last year and this figure is expected to exceed 100,000 this year.

Meanwhile, residents of Hyderabad, India, got a taste of “Uniquely Singapore” early last month, thanks to a STB Chennai promotion.

‘The Uniquely Singapore Festival’ took place from 8-9 April at the Prasads IMAX, the most popular shopping mall and Cineplex in the city.

The Festival attracted more than 30,000 visitors over the two days of celebration and visitors were also able to buy attractive Singapore travel packages put together by Singapore Airlines, Indian Airlines, Air India and Star Cruise.

The STB through its regional offices in Dubai, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi will continue to work closely with promotional efforts to strengthen the visibility of Singapore as a destination for Indians, especially first time travellers, families and the well-heeled professionals, executives and yuppies who travel frequently.