Northstar

www.travelweekly-asia.com 12 | ATF OFFICIAL SUPPORTING DAILIES destination ///Singapore T he Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is advocating the use of technology to transform the travel industry into one that is increasingly agile and innovative. This comes as part of its push for 'Quality Tourism' – a model that emphasises, among other strategies, the developing of memorable tourism experiences, according to Melissa Ow, STB's deputy chief executive. STB aims to leverage technology more effectively in three areas: deepening visitor insights, improving visitor experience and supporting businesses with more efficient content and data sharing. Central hubs in the making To help businesses better understand what visitors want, STB is in the midst STB names three areas of focus USE OF TECHNOLOGY THE WAY FORWARD FOR SINGAPORE'S TRAVEL INDUSTRY By Lee Xin Hui of developing a central data hub, which aims to provide salient tourism statistics like tourism receipts, visitor arrivals, social media sentiments and web traffic. A separate back-end digital content and distribution platform central is also in the works – it allows stakeholders to easily contribute and extract information, for instance, events and opening hours of attractions, which they can incorporate in their packages. "This open platform offers increased exposure to businesses and their offerings, and makes sharing and updating of content much more efficient and effective," said Quek Choon Yang, STB's chief technology officer who first shared details of the initiatives during the inaugural Tourism Industry Conference in April last year. At the moment, travel agents can leverage on travel insights provided by the GfK TravelScan Report, the result of a collaboration between the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) and market research institute, GfK, which started in 2015. The report is derived from consolidated industry booking data from participating travel agents. Personalised visitor experiences To enhance visitor touch points, STB is currently collaborating with global digital partners such as Alitrip, Ctrip and more recently Kakao from South Korea and Tinklabs from Hong Kong, to develop mobile applications and smart kiosks that offer enhanced navigation, real-time visitor information and itinerary planning. "As travellers become more discerning and digitally-savvy, they desire a more seamless and personal experience when they travel. With technology, we can enhance their entire visitor journey – from researching and travel booking, SINGAPORE IN NUMBERS TR $6.1 BILLION * IVA 8.2 MILLION ** RevPar SGD $216.64^ Top 3 TR markets* CHINA, INDONESIA, INDIA *Q2 2016 data from STB ** Jan-Jun 2016 data from STB ^ Nov 2016 data from STR Singapore Changi Airport Quek Choon Yang, chief technology officer of STB

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