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India,
Singapore may do joint tourism pitche
Sohini Mookherjea / Kolkata August 25, 2005
www.business-standard.com
The tourism boards of India and Singapore are in the process
of identifying western markets of common interest to project
both the destinations as a single seamless attractive tourist
package as was done in the Australian Travel and Tourism
fair held in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.
Kolkata ranks amongst the top five tourist traffic generating
cities of India in Singapore and about 16,000 tourists
visited Singapore last year, said Kang Siew Kheng, director
for international relations of the Singapore Tourism Board
(STB).
India was the sixth highest tourist generating country
for Singapore.
Common areas of business interest including information
technology (IT), retail, real estate and a whole host
of small and medium enterprises.
Business traffic between the two was expected to rise.
Currently, leisure tourists from India accounted for
40 per cent while business tourists were only 30 per cent.
Kheng said business travel offered greater scope for
growth. Areas of tourist interest in the eastern region
like the Sunderbans and the Buddhist circuit could be
areas through which the seamless package between the two
countries in terms of tourism could be fostered, according
to Kheng.
About 4,71,000 tourists visited Singapore from India
in 2004.Bilateral trade stood at $7.6 billion in 2004.
The Singapore Tourism Board has also embarked on a new
advertising campaign titled 'Uniquely Singapore' to showcase
Singapore as an interesting blend of traditional ethos
with modern sensibilities, Kheng said.
In order to promote tourism and increase tourist traffic,
STB would work on cost-sharing deals with airlines like
Jetstar and other carriers for advertising and promotional
programmes.
These would include organising events and arranging outdoor
space for advertising campaigns, Kheng remarked. The rate
of growth of tourism from India was at 9 per cent per
annum, but Kheng said she expected growth to rise to 11-12
per cent per year.
Though the Kolkata-Singapore leg was emerging as one
of the hottest sectors in bilateral trade and tourism,
there was no Singapore visa office in Kolkata.
Visitors from Kolkata had to get visas from New Delhi.
Kheng said to counter this and increase the reach of
the visa application machinery, STB had floated the concept
of e-visas. The applicants will have to submit visa applications
with relevant documentation and fees to authorised visa
agents in particular cities. The process of visa issue
would then be handled electronically, Kheng said.
In Kolkata, the authorised agents currently were VFS
(Visa Facilitation Service) and TT Services.
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