(TAN): Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has signed an MoU with Visa to address the needs of the city-state’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism and lifestyle sector that have been impacted by Covid-19.
The STB-Visa collaboration focuses on two strategic areas to revive the local tourism industry – joint research and analytics and marketing partnerships. As international travel gradually resumes, both organisations will scale up their partnership to include joint international marketing, powered by data and insights derived from their combined research. The aim is to develop marketing strategies and initiatives to help Singapore businesses capture demand once global travel resumes.
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STB and Visa will combine proprietary data, as well as research and analytical capabilities, to derive insights on how Covid-19 has changed domestic and international consumer behaviour. These insights will help identify new trends and untapped opportunities, which will be shared with local SMEs to develop their own campaigns and initiatives that are in tune with the new environment.
In the next phase of their data and research collaboration, STB and Visa will focus on the impact of Covid-19 on business travel. Insights from the study will also guide future campaigns to capture inbound business tourism spend and help local SMEs recover.
In the first phase of their marketing partnership, STB and Visa will develop a domestic marketing campaign to raise awareness of local SMEs, while driving domestic consumption through Visa cardholder promotions. In the second phase when international travel resumes, both organisations will launch international marketing campaigns to increase awareness of local brands and experiences in Singapore.
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In the coming months, STB and Visa will introduce joint promotions and offers to encourage locals to rediscover Singapore and support local SMEs. The campaigns will be centred on three key themes: Escape, Feast and Shop, to boost spending at hotels, attractions, food and beverage outlets, and other local retailers. “Through our partnership with Visa, we also aim to give local businesses a much-needed boost through domestic spending,” said STB CEO Keith Tan.
“Covid-19 has greatly disrupted the way we live, shop and pay, and businesses need to keep pace with changing consumer behaviour and spending patterns,” Visa Country Manager for Singapore and Brunei, Kunal Chatterjee, said. “Our partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board has enabled us to derive analysis and insights on how local businesses can recover in Singapore, and what we can do to support their recovery.”
