The Tourism Board of Singapore is joining hands with Vietnamese travel agencies in a new tourism promotion targeting more Vietnamese air and cruise visitors to the island country in the years to come.
The Fly and Cruise program would allow tourists to fly from Vietnam and take a StarCruises trip from Singapore to visit places of interest in Malaysia before returning to the city state, Darren Oh, Director of the Singapore Tourism Board for Indochina, said, adding that the cooperation will help his country promote shopping and new attractions such as Sentosa Luge and the 4D Magix Theater in the island country in the summer.
The program will also include Singapore’s renowned tourist destinations like Merlion Park, Esplanade Theater, Night Safari, City Hall and shopping centers as designed by the board and Vietnamese tour operators such as the Saigon Petroleum Tour Center and Transviet.
The Saigon Petroleum Tour Center offers a five-day package Fly and Cruise tour for US$669 while Transviet puts on a four-day tour to the two countries for US$639. These costs double the charges of the tours launched for Vietnamese holidaymakers to visit Singapore for the summer period alone.
Some 46 shopping centers and stores are offering discounts of up to 70 per cent on cosmetics, fashion items, electronics and home appliances until July 23, the board told reporters at a function in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday (June 14).
The Fly and Cruise program and the shopping and sightseeing tours would attract a large number of Vietnamese tourists to Singapore in the summer, Oh expected.
The number of Vietnamese traveling to Singapore in January-May was up 12 per cent from a year earlier. However, the increase in Vietnamese tourist arrivals in Singapore has slowed down in comparison to two years ago as there are more choices when it comes to overseas travel, Oh revealed, hoping that the target for this year is 180,000, 30,000 higher than last year.
In the first five months of this year, as many as 39,690 arrivals from Singapore visited Vietnam, up 41.3 per cent on-year.
SGT
Vietnamese
