The new age of Singapore Tourism and keeping ahead of the game

In recognition of Singapore's growing status as a global business city, major hotel players have made Singapore their base. P@SSPORT features two companies that are driving change not only in Singapore but also the region, and talks to its leaders on the opportunities they see for Singapore in this increasingly competitive tourism landscape.

A new age of tourism in Singapore
Mr Patrick Imbardelli, Chief Executive Officer of Pan Pacific Hotels Group

The new Chief Executive Officer of Pan Pacific Hotels Group, Mr Patrick Imbardelli, has been leading a quiet charge to rebrand the hotel group following the renaming and integration of Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts and Parkroyal under the Pan Pacific umbrella.

"We are working with Interbrand for a specific brand review of both the Pan Pacific and Parkroyal brands, aimed at refreshing the brand propositions and positioning them for further growth. We are also building human resource capabilities and developing diverse talents, and creating a strong people culture that will be key driver in our business," Mr Imbardelli told P@SSPORT.

From its base in Singapore, the Pan Pacific Hotels Group is looking to build a strong presence in the region and explore hotel management contracts in key overseas markets such as the United States, Australia and throughout Asia.

He said, they will also be opening three to four hotels in the next 12 months in key focus markets such as China, Malaysia and Thailand - respectively, the Pan Pacific Xiamen (August 2009), Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Bangkok (September 2009) and Pan Pacific Tianjin (2012).

Observing that the global slowdown has impacted multiple industries, including hospitality, Mr Imbardelli said, "Visitor arrivals have declined, the meetings segment is seeing a decrease in activity and discretionary spending is down. These are tough times, but we remain pleased with the performance of our hotels."

Mr Imbardelli, a long-time Singapore resident, said Singapore had done a great job in building up its leisure offerings in the past couple of years.

"With the upcoming completions of projects such as the integrated resorts, Gardens by the Bay and the National Art Gallery, the city is definitely embarking on an exciting new phase in its position as a buzz-worthy, must-visit leisure destination. The challenge then lies in more successful and far-reaching promotion and building up an awareness of these new and varied leisure offerings."

To get itself in strong shape post-recession, he said Singapore needed to identify new markets and customer segments and build awareness of Singapore's plentiful and varied leisure offerings among these groups.

"It will be a new, exciting stage for tourism in Singapore with the completion of the IRs, with Universal Studios Singapore®, the new Singapore Sports Hub and so on. We're excited by all of it; we're truly in a new age of tourism in Singapore. The Youth Olympics in 2010 too, will no doubt further entrench Singapore's standing on the world stage as an international, exciting destination."

Asked what other tourism products or services he would like to see in Singapore, Mr Imbardelli said, "Singapore embodies the best of East and West, boasts a rich multi-cultural heritage, and has an ever-increasing population of residents that weren't born here, but have chosen to make Singapore home.

"We already have the Arts Festival, Esplanade-Theatres by the Bay, the upcoming National Art Gallery. If we can build on all of that further, the city is in prime position to capture standing as an arts and cultural hub that attracts the best international performance arts, contemporary acts, comedy acts, concerts, arts exhibitions.

"Not many cities in the region can lay claim to that position and it will put Singapore in good stead to be opportunistic and develop new offerings to claim that position."

Terrific initiatives but watch the competition
Michael Issenberg, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Accor Asia Pacific

Last year, Accor Asia Pacific moved its corporate headquarters to Singapore from Sydney for a very good reason- to spearhead its expansion drive in the region.

"Locating the leadership team closer to our expansion front (in Asia) has been positive for our growth," said Mr Michael Issenberg, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Accor Asia Pacific.

Over the year though, Mr Issenberg has observed that trading conditions have toughened, with two of Singapore's core industries - shipping and banking - heavily affected by the economic crisis.

Despite the slowdown in arrivals, "a result of corporate travel restrictions, smaller and less events and meetings and lower leisure traffic", he said Accor's three hotels in Singapore - Novotel Clarke Quay, Grand Mercure Roxy and ibis Singapore on Bencoolen - have been performing well within their competitive environment.

"The ibis was the latest hotel to open (February 2009) and is quickly establishing itself in the economy hotel segment. The ibis exceeded 85% occupancy in the month of May, a pleasing result given the hotel's brief trading history and the market conditions."

He applauded the "terrific initiatives" by the Singaporean Tourism Board (STB) to stimulate leisure travel to replace some of the decline in arrivals. "These have included promotions with Singapore Airlines and more recently with Jetstar which have assisted by providing lengthened stopovers and drawn incremental leisure travel to Singapore, with the offer of free accommodation and attractions."

He said new attractions being built at Resorts World at Sentosa, including Universal Studios Singapore®, Maritime Xperiential Museum and Equarius Water Park, as well as the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands™ will provide much needed variety to the leisure offer.

However, he warned that Singapore needed to be mindful of the competition. "Neighbouring cities including Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur have greatly improved their retail offer, which threaten Singapore's retail tourism and events such as the annual Great Singapore Sale."

"The current facilities for concerts are limited in capacities and make large productions unviable for Singapore. This prevents the city to promote events to short haul tourism."

Mr Issenberg noted that the new facilities coming online in the next few months, including the two integrated resorts (IRs), would positively alter regional tourism flows to Singapore. The two state-of-the-art theatres at Marina Bay Sands™ for example will have a total of about 4,000 seats.

"It will however, be essential that the entire tourism industry including hotels, airlines and tour operators work together with these resorts, to ensure cohesive and competitive propositions are delivered and sufficient and relevant inventory is made available for events."

"The Singapore government has always been agile and responsive to growth and change and is making significant investment in enhancing and investing in new facilities, acquiring events and undertaking effective marketing activities, promoting tourism."

He added that Singapore is well positioned with these new attractions and facilities to prosper from renewed tourism on a recovery upswing. "The FORMULA ONE race, inaugural Youth Olympic Games and other sporting events that have been secured, will stimulate traffic and solid broadcast opportunities for Singapore. These events also contribute to improved facilities benefiting all residents of Singapore."

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