Master of Business Administration

Assignment in Marketing Management

Singapore Tourism Marketing Strategy Evaluation

Dimitri Blttler Malcolm Ferguson Sascha Gartenbach Shama Rahman

8th August 2011

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Document information

Title: Singapore Tourism Marketing Strategy Evaluation

Topic: Marketing Management

deadline: 8th of August

saved: 8. August 2011

Page count: 30 excluding Layout

Version Version date changes responsible

V1.0 8.08.2011 Turn- it in Version Authors (see front)

by the authors

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Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 6

2. Situational Analysis.................................................................................................................. 7

2.1. Market Summary .......................................................................................................... 7 2.1.1. Target Markets Evaluation.............................................................................. 7 2.1.2. Target Visitor Evaluation ................................................................................ 9 2.1.3. Market Needs ............................................................................................... 10 2.1.4. Market Trends .............................................................................................. 11 2.1.5. Profit from tourism in Asian countries ........................................................... 12 2.1.6. Market Growth .............................................................................................. 13

2.2. SWOT ......................................................................................................................... 13 2.2.1. Strengths ...................................................................................................... 13 2.2.2. Weaknesses ................................................................................................ 14 2.2.3. Opportunities ................................................................................................ 14 2.2.4. Threats ......................................................................................................... 15

2.3. PEST(LE) ................................................................................................................... 15 2.3.1. Political......................................................................................................... 15 2.3.2. Economical .................................................................................................. 15 2.3.3. Social ........................................................................................................... 16 2.3.4. Technological ............................................................................................... 16

2.4. Competition ................................................................................................................ 16

2.5. Product Offering.......................................................................................................... 17

2.6. Key to Success ........................................................................................................... 17

2.7. Critical Issues ............................................................................................................. 17

3. Marketing Strategy................................................................................................................. 19

3.1. Mission ....................................................................................................................... 19

3.2. Target Markets............................................................................................................ 19

3.3. Marketing Objectives .................................................................................................. 19

3.4. Positioning .................................................................................................................. 20

3.5. Select the right Channels ............................................................................................ 21 3.5.1. Direct Sales Channels .................................................................................. 21 3.5.2. Direct Channels ............................................................................................ 21 3.5.3. Indirect Channels ......................................................................................... 22

3.6. Financial Objectives .................................................................................................... 23

3.7. Strategies ................................................................................................................... 24 3.7.1. eService ....................................................................................................... 24 3.7.2. Social Media ................................................................................................ 26

3.8. Marketing Mix ............................................................................................................. 26

3.9. Marketing Research .................................................................................................... 27

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4. Implementation ...................................................................................................................... 28

5. References ............................................................................................................................ 29

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1. Executive Summary

Tourism, in particular travel in Asia is a booming activity due to increasing wealth within major Asian countries such as China, India and Malaysia. Traditional countries e.g. Aus-tralia also have a very strong economy which creates higher percentage of wealth within their population1. This provides an extraordinary opportunity for Singapore to position it-self as a travel destination within this region.

Singapore is already known as a cosmopolitan, multi-cultural destination in Asia which is worth visiting either for business or holiday reasons e.g. on a cross-over to another final destination in Asia. Singapore already provides a broad range of tourist products and services.

Singapore differs from neighbouring countries, since there is a lack of space and natural resources, which gives neighbouring destinations an advantage. Singapore has therefore dedicated itself to being a hub for everything that is ASIA (Yose Hemana)2. To have this goal, Singapore has invested heavily in building up its infrastructure. Singapores lack of natural resources has caused them to market their tourism differently by focusing on their human resources in the service industry. Singapore has built up an East meets West culture of multiracial people, promoting a mixture of Chinese, Malaysian, Middle Eastern, Indian and Western cuisine. Singapore cuisine is presented at the annual Singapore Food Festival. This is accentuated with little India, Chinatown, and with the western mod-ernisation, e.g. Shopping, Zoos, gardens, and its clean and green environment. Along with this, a tax-free facility encourages tourists to spend more.

The challenge for Singapore is to attract visitors to visit Singapore on a frequent base by offering services, which are worth experiencing more than just once. It is important to create a relationship with the tourists in order to create, maintain and further develop ser-vices that have a true market demand.

1 Gary B, (2011), Asia Pacifics Tourist Boom, business travel connexion

2 Yose Hemana, (2007) Singapore Tourism Industry: a Contribution to the economy

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2. Situational Analysis

Singapore is currently in a growth and maturity state. People are aware of Singapore as a tourist destination and the city is known as a busy cosmopolitan city that offers a superior class living environment surrounded by high-rise buildings and gardens.

An interesting facet about Singapore is the ubiquitous collage of cultures where people of different ethnicities and beliefs coexist peacefully.

The goals of the Singapore Tourism Board for 2015 are:

To become a Leading Convention & Exhibition City in Asia

To to enrich visitor experience that is Uniquely Singapore

To establish Singapore as the Services Centre of Asia

With a S$2 billion fund, they want to improve four areas:

Infrastructure Development Capability Development Anchoring Iconic/Major Events Product Development

The Uniquely Singapore slogan and programme which has been criticised as not being supported by the Singaporean population and not having a clear distinctive message to outside tourists (F. Woo Yee3) has been changed into Your Singapore with a higher fo-cus on visitor-centricity and local residents.

2.1. Market Summary

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has very detailed statistics about their visitors. This in-formation provides details such as per capita spent per visitor, sophisticated demograph-ics and geographic analysis, and it is used to develop a better strategy for tourism mar-keting and budgeting.

2.1.1. Target Markets Evaluation

Education

Due to the globalisation and evolution of a knowledge-based economy, to have a competi-tive advantage, Singapore have reformed their education infrastructure which originally only followed UK standard level to include a more decentralized education system, Mok et al4.

Local sport and global sport events

Singapore as an island city state offers many different possibilities of sports like golf, ten-nis, and all possible water sports.

In terms of advertisement and marketing, Singapore has been investing significant amount of money and effort to booster its sports industry in recent years. The Singapore

3 F.Woo Yee,Nation Branding: A case study of Singapore, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

4 Ka-ho Mok, Decentralisation and marketization of education in Singapore: A case study of the school excellence model, Journal of Educational Administration Vol.41, Iss. 4. p.348-366, 2003

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Economic Development Board sees a considerable yet unused potential in the sports in-dustry of US$25.4 billion in products and US$20.7 billion in services by 2013.

Singapore has hosted a number of internationally popular sporting events such as the Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, the Youth Olympic Games and had Asias first night circuit Formula One race initiated. It also advertises the multi-million project of the new Singapore Sports Hub (planed opening in 2014) as an opportunity for branding, marketing and broadcasting events for international investors, sports clubs and sports related companies. (Singapore Economic Development Board, 7.11.2011)

As a result of its international advertisement and devel-opment of sports, Singapore was nominated second best ultimate sports city in the Sport City Award at the International Sports Event Management Awards 2010 Gala Dinner in London. Singapore also got the award for the best government support.

Singapore also advertises sports actively in its own city state. The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) was promot-ing sports to improve the attitude towards and participa-tion in sports of Singaporeans under the slogan Lets Play and contributed to the marketing initiative of Unique Singapore by giving the Singaporeans a feeling of uniqueness and common identity which will help tourism in the long haul. The Singaporeans already are very keen on spectator sports and thus give tourists a positive and truthful feeling about Singapore as a sports city.

Entertainment & Leisure

Singapore offers many attractions and entertainment centres for having fun as well as be-ing a business hub. Tourist attractions such as Singapores National Museum, Singapore Science Centre and Singapore Zoological Gardens etc. offer interactive fun while learning at the same time. Theatres, cinemas, night clubs, pubs and cocktail lounges offer a wide range of night life options. Amusement centres and parks provide more opportunities to enjoy the city life. A wide range of clubs are active in the city with activities ranging from swimming, sailing, gymnastics and sports to cultural clubs for many of the communities represented.

Food Singapore is known as a multi place for nations, religion, languages and cultures. Sin-gapore attracted lots of different people from all over the world to live there. This multi-national, cultural and religious development is also reflected in their food style which fuses primarily Chinese, Indian, Malay, and other cultures. Although this very interesting mixture food alone doesnt create a unique value to visit Singapore e.g. Malaysia offers a similar food. Food and Shopping is in regard to Ruetsche (2006) only a secondary element of tourism. Although it still plays a very important part to tourism industry since visitors still need to eat during their vacation time and also want to buy souvenirs for family and friends.

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Accommodation and wellness Singapore wants to promote and strengthen its city as a destination for meetings, con-ventions and exhibitions and incentives but also for holidays with families. This trend can be underpinned by openings of two integrated resorts5 in 2010 which also provides con-ventions and exhibition facilities. Focusing on this integrated resorts are expected to boost tourist figures exponentially. The concept of integrated resorts was actually intro-duced by Singapore in 2005 with the intention to broaden premium leisure and entertain-ment options. This concept is (with a different naming) very successful implemented in Las Vegas and Bahamas e.g. Wynn/Encore resort in Las Vegas. Another aspect is to increase medical tourism. Over time Singapore attracted high edu-cated people to settle. As a result Singapore offers high end quality services in various areas e.g. healthcare and education services. The increase of especially medical tourism also creates a need for hospitality services around this special customer segment. Being able to spot this target customer segment might be a chance to create a unique value. We havent found any detailed information which would highlight such a segment but would be worth a research. Another aspect that will be of interest is the number of female visitors rising over last 10 years by 57% to 5.131M which is about the half of all visitors. The main age groups are between 25 and 64. Adjusting hospitality services towards these trends can potentially build a unique value offered.

MICE (Meeting, Incentives, Conference, Events)

Singapore is one of the leading destinations in the world for MICE. Its target is to promote and strengthen its city as a destination for MICE (meetings, conventions and exhibitions and incentives). Up to 6000 business events are held in Singapore each year. In 2008 alone, Singapore accounted for one-fourth of all the business events that were held in Asia and welcomed close to three million business travellers.6

2.1.2. Target Visitor Evaluation

The typical profile for a visitor in Singapore consists of the following geographic, demo-graphic and behavioural factors:

Geographical Analysis

Visitors within this segment are visiting from South East Asia and North Asia sum-ming up to 61% of all visitors, followed by Europe. Oceania and South Asia, each at 10% 7.

The top 10 markets are Indonesia, China, Australia, Malaysia, India, Japan, UK, Thailand and USA.

5 Integrated Resorts is a combination of conventions and exhibition facilities, themed attractions, entertainment venues, recreation facili-ties, and hotel and retail mix.

6 PRLog Press release distribution (2010) Its a rosy picture for Singapores business tourism sector with the rebound of Singapores MICE industry.

7 Source: Singapore Tourist Board Statistics, (2011), Annual Report on Tourism Statistics 2009

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Demographics (as of 2010)

Majority ages between 25 and 64, which makes 84% of all visitors.

There is almost an equal gender ratio between female and male.

Per Capita expenditure in total is S$ 951 (~480)

Behaviour Factors

The majority of average length of stay is between

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In times of individualisation, participating and visiting unique and globally watched events such as sports events become more important to visitors.

Sightseeing

Singapore offers a wide variety of sightseeing tours, including some unique experiences such as the night safari in a tram, wild tour of the Zoo and enjoy breakfast with the Orangutans or an afternoon trip to the Sentosa Island resort. A rickshaw night tour of Chinatown or a harbour cruise can be rounded off with a view of the city as from the unique 165 meter high wheel the Singapore Flyer. Hop-on Hop-off bus tours allow visi-tors to visit the many attractions at their own pace.

2.1.4. Market Trends

People in Asia, especially China and India, become wealthier and hence have more money to spend on tourism. The global debt crisis has let to decline in value of western currencies such as Euro and Dollar. This will reduce spending power of potential visitors from these regions.

Education: the table below depicts the number of students going for Higher Education. Table 18 below shows comparison between Hong Kong and Singapore. The table depicts the number of students going for Higher Education:

Number of Students in

Higher education 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Hong Kong, China 85.7 83.3 84.8 85.9 84.3 82.6

Singapore 59.4 62.9 65.7 69 72.7 75.1

Figure 2 Education Table

Figure 3 - Education Graph

Holidays become an important part of Singapores tourism strategy. This trend can be underpinned by openings of two integrated resorts9 in 2010, which also provides conven-tions and exhibition facilities. Focusing on this integrated resorts are expected to boost tourist figures exponentially. The concept of integrated resorts was actually introduced by

8 Euromonitor International (2011) Higher Education Statistics

9 Note: Integrated Resorts is a combination of conventions and exhibition facilities, themed attractions, entertainment venues, recreation facilities, and hotel and retail mix.

0

50

100

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Hong Kong,

China

Singapore

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Singapore in 2005 with the intention to broaden premium leisure and entertainment op-tions.

Food. Although Singapore does not have abundant natural resources to develop more diverse tourism experiences, it does have a diverse food and culture background, and with the combination of tourism and creativity, it can forge a culinary tourism which is in-novative, diverse, and attracts peoples attention10.

Sport. There is a clear trend of sports related tourism (e.g. World Football Champion-ships) and Singapore has a reputation in the ASEAN countries to be one of the best de-veloped sports hosting cities. Other countries try to follow that trend but have not yet reached the same status as Singapore.

Entertainment and Leisure. A wide range of innovative offerings provide as large an of-fering as any other location in Asia. These are constantly being expanded to reflect the cultures present in the city.

2.1.5. Profit from tourism in Asian countries

Table 2.11 Shows the trend of visitors in Singapore over the years and its competitors:

Profit from Tourism/Year

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Hong Kong, China

2,340 2,497 2,745 3,333 4,161 5,741

Japan -8,969 -7,576 -5,511 -5,276 -8,628 -8,947

Malaysia 3,519 4,121 5,355 6,503 7,954 8,850

Singapore 2,000 2,245 2,539 3,210 2,449 3,844

Thailand 3,993 5,679 6,595 7,109 7,770 8,716

Figure 4 - Profit from tourism across major Asian tourist destinations

10 Tsai C., Horng J., (2005) Exploring marketing strategy of culinary tourism development in Hong Kong and Singapore: A resource-

based theory

11 Euromonitor International (2011) Tourism Profit Revenue Statistics

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Figure 5 Tourism Profit graph

2.1.6. Market Growth

With a growing wealth in Asian countries we see a growing potential within in following sectors:

Medical & Wellness Gambling Leisure and Events and MICE

Above areas have a steady growth based in various statistics. Neighbouring countries to Singapore such as Thailand recognize this trend too and thus, a growing competition is challenging Singapore.

2.2. SWOT

2.2.1. Strengths

Tourism is already well established in Singapore with high annual visitor arrivals.

There is political awareness of tourism in Singapore as demonstrated by ministerial meetings with other ASEAN countries

Singapore seen to be safe and welcoming

The developed business sector in Singapore is being complemented by new entries to the market e.g. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

The entertainment sector is already well developed in the areas of shopping and nightlife

Singapore already well known by external tourism channels

-10000.00

-8000.00

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2000.00

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6000.00

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2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Hong Kong, China

Japan

Malaysia

Singapore

Thailand

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Air travel not required by tourism from Malaysia

Singapore Changi is a world-class airport

Wide range of tourism resources from wildlife, culture, sports, and health and well-ness.

Multiple country tours available for ASEAN countries

Widespread English language spoken

2.2.2. Weaknesses

Market maturity of new sectors not well developed

Competing strategy with neighbouring countries to be a strategic hub

Progress slow due to extra levels of government policy making.

Lack of collaboration with Singapore Airlines

Many marketing campaigns do not show an overall integrated and consistent mes-sage.

Unique Singapore has failed to convey its message. Your Singapore is not used at its full possibilities

Website is confusing. Facebook site lacks design. YouTube video is outdated.

Lack of cooperation with trading companies

Visas are required for travellers from outside the region (e.g. China and India)

Similar image to neighbouring tourist destinations e.g. beaches and cultural assets.

Lack of tourism marketing offices in some major countries

Some target visitor countries such as India and China are not well understood

Some ASEAN tourists are not interested in visiting neighbouring countries

2.2.3. Opportunities

Close to growing markets such as China and India. Shorter distances to high-expenditure markets such as the Japan, Middle East and Korea.

Tourist packages should include more variety with medical and gambling

Simplifying visa requirements would help

Leveraging family tourism with business visitors from India, Japan, China and Aus-tralia

Expand facilities for the MICE market.

Attract tourists using Singapore Airport as hub for travel

Attract and leverage special international events such as Formula 1 race

Develop Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism

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2.2.4. Threats

Regional threats such as the tsunami crises discourage tourism.

Currency fluctuation in light of the current financial credit crisis is a risk.

Ongoing ethnic and religious conflicts are potentially problematic.

Budget for the national Singapore tourism organization may be reduced if global economic activity reduces.

Integrated campaigns may not be supported by all sectors.

Other regional countries may offer competing strategies

2.3. PEST(LE)12

2.3.1. Political

Singapore is noted as having a stable government which generously funds various initiatives e.g. Finance Sector, Education Sector, Tourism sector

Ministry of Trade and Industry have stated that their vision is to make Singapore a leading global city of talent, enterprise and innovation. This is to promote economy by providing higher standard of living and creation of jobs.

Ministry of Finance has mentioned their aim is to develop rather than control. Devel-opment would be in working with industry experts to make Singapore a world class financial and business hub.

To promote transparency, the government has setup a Government E-Business Por-tal where all public sector announcements are posted and an e-procurement for government.

Low corruption rate and Enforcement units are known to be very efficient and keep-ing low crime rate.

The government has deregulated several markets and liberalized it so that now it is able to reduce costs of e.g. Electricity and has allowed for competition.

Non Government Organisation (NGO) helps to promote tourism. To promote tourism Casino has been introduced.

2.3.2. Economical

Singapore is an example of a Vibrant free market economy

Government has invested significantly in diversifying economy leading to growth of tourism industry.

Singapore has been very productive in past but due to Financial crisis in 2008 they have taken a hit in sales

12

Hoon L., (2009) PEST Singapore Business Environment, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI M

ALAYSIA CITY

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Has a strong currency which means residents are leaving country for holiday; how-ever, Singapore buys petrol from Malaysia cheaply.

Singapore government uses tax to reinvest into the city and attract foreign investors which they are reliant on

Is said to currently be in surplus in its economy due to its careful expenditure

Singapore has no foreign debt

2.3.3. Social

Strong cultural, traditional family values with latest generation adopting western cul-ture

Hard working and as a result has increased nations productiveness in the business sectors, however this has led to some sacrifice on family and social values

Population is mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians

Singaporeans do not like blue collar work and as a result there is foreign hiring of workers to perform these tasks

Singapore has invested heavily in education and made it a law for all children to be educated. English being primary language

2.3.4. Technological

One of the strongest IT infrastructure

Progressively moving to electronic services area

Due to lack of water resources, Singapore is recycling and desalinating water. Sin-gapore is said to have the best technology in recycling water, and its been men-tioned that neighbouring countries are looking to adopt this technology.

2.4. Competition13

Competition varies in the context of tourism sector. From an educational perspective Sin-gapore faces global competition from Western countries such as USA and UK but also Hong Kong. Another indirect competition is faced by online universities. In a context of leisure, entertainment, sport & sport events and food we see competition in neighbouring countries.

Some of the competitions are an indirect competition as they only compete in a single discipline e.g. within holidays but on a long term, countries and cities in this region de-velop and increase and complete their offering across other sectors (MICE, education, leisure & entertainment, sport & sport events, food, etc) and will become a direct competi-tion for Singapore.

A big competition is faced as other countries try to replace Singapore as an aviation hub in the Asia and Pacific region.

13

Rewtrakunphaiboon W, (2007) ASEAN IMAGE POSITIONING: THE CASE STUDY OF SINGAPORE

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2.5. Product Offering14

Singapore is famous for being a clean spot, which uniquely incorporates multi cultural and multinational attitudes which is reflected in many areas such as food or attractions. Visitors can experience this exotic mix across several offerings in Singapore:

Shopping & food paradise of ASIA MICE centre of the world Health care service hub of ASIA Short break holiday Fusion and cosmopolitan destination Education hub of ASIA City of major events Aviation hub

2.6. Key to Success

The key to success for Singapore is to design combinations of products that meet market demands and create a unique brand positioning such as Matterhorn, watches, the fa-mous Swiss army knife, and chocolate for Switzerland.

2.7. Critical Issues

For Singapore to maintain its unique quality is challenging, as neighbouring countries provide more natural resources and soul. Singapore can focus on its far superior infra-structure and support of human resources in its tourism marketing. In this way Singapore has managed to maintain their success as a destination for tourism. However, the lack of space is a challenge that Singapore has to contend with.

As mentioned previously, Singapores main destination competitors are Hong Kong and Malaysia. F. Woo Yee15 states that Singapores previous branding of uniquely Singa-pore although successful in presenting Singapores assets was in all still weak in terms of what message the brand was trying to convey about Singapore. He mentioned that af-ter analysis from various questionnaire responses from consumers, what unique quality there was about Singapore was very ambiguous. Singapores portrayal of East meets West and cultural melting pot although is attractive to consumers, does not quite differen-tiate itself from e.g. Abu Dhabi or even UK.

To differentiate Singapore from other countries, it has to strengthen its brand positioning by presenting itself as the hospitable tourist destination as it is one of its main strengths for being a multicultural, clean and safe Asian city. As they already are mature in terms of tourism, to have a controlled growth of tourism and increase and maintain visitor satisfac-tion, constant monitoring of customer satisfaction and needs is a critical issue.

14 Keng K. A., (2005) Developing Singapore as an Educational Hub in Asia: Opportunities and Challenge, Dept of Marketing & IB, Ling-

nan University

15 Yee, W.F., (2009) Nation Branding: A case study of Singapore, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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3. Marketing Strategy

3.1. Mission

As the Singapore Tourism Board states:

The mission of the Board is to develop and champion tourism, so as to build the sector into a key driver of economic growth for Singapore. The STB aims to differentiate and market Singapore as a must-visit destination offering enriching experiences through the Uniquely Singapore brand.

We would recommend The Singapore Tourism Board to enhance its mission statement that it aims its differentiation to give the visitor an individualised experience and use its new brand Your Singapore.

Marketings role is to move Singapore from a stage of product awareness to product preferences and create a brand people like to visit on a frequent base.

3.2. Target Markets

It is important to understand what type of people visiting Singapore but also being aware of trends. We will highlight the predominant visitors market segment. To define visitors market we were using demographic and geographic data as well as information across sets that have been explored in chapter 2.1.2.

The main focus should be on attracting higher net-value tourists in order to increase revenue without having to increase the number of tourists. The target sector is middle-class families looking for active vacations with activities for all the family.

The predominant visitors profiles are families (with 1 kid), couples and business associ-ates from Asian countries. Their trip purposes are mainly for holiday and business. The majority of visitors stays between under 1 day and 3 days on average and fit a gender group between 25 and 50. 61% like to choose hotels as accommodations whereby the rest prefers other places or stay with their friends or relatives. Using available statistics and other additional external sources, Singapore is able to create specific segments that they can target. It is very important to understand how segments think as this will create a competitive advantage16.

3.3. Marketing Objectives

The impression left by the tourist literature, website and travel agent information was that Singapore offers all things to all people. From budget family holidays to exclusive well-ness breaks the information is presented in a manner that leaves no lasting impression of the uniqueness of Singapore. A strong brand positioning with a clear message is required to differentiate Singapore from its neighbouring competitors. Singapore should be posi-

16 McDonald M., Smith B.D., Ward K., Marketing Due Intelligence Reconnecting Strategy to Share Price, 2007

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tioned as a safe, quality, welcoming and open location for exciting high end family vaca-tions.

The recent economic boom in China created a new wealthy class including families, young couple and business men and women. This group should be directly targeted by marketing activities, working closely with airlines, travel agents, cultural and business or-ganizations.

The existence of multiple cultures living peacefully together in Singapore should be ex-ploited to promote an open, friendly population willing to welcome the tourist. Tourist lit-erature and website should emphasise this.

3.4. Positioning

After reviewing Singapore Tourism Boards Marketing Strategy in spite of having good marketing mix, the positioning of Singapore Tourism is very weak. The Brand name Your Singapore and related website, does not clarify how Singapore has positioned itself uniquely in comparison to other neighbouring countries, e.g. Malaysia and Hong Kong.

In terms of culture Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines have stronger cultures and in terms of modernity and progressive society, Hong Kong can boast this as well.

One of the Singapores many strengths is its stable government, low crime17 rate and its clean and green environment, Singapores Point of Parity. This is unique to Singapore, which other neighbouring countries have yet to boast about. In combination with this, the multi culture city, with foods from across the world, consumers are able to experience Asian culture, from mix of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian, combined with the freedom and modernity of the western nations, in a safe, clean and secure environment all in one location.

YourSingapore the brand name itself in association with the website seems to say Come to Singapore, and make your own experience. It would be stronger to leave an impres-sion on consumers mind of Come to Singapore, city of modernity, peace, culture and stability. In this way Singapore could be made to have a stronger brand positioning com-pared to other neighbouring cities. Your Singapore brand name can be kept but the meaning behind it can be changed and strengthened to provide more focused and distin-guished identity.

The Point of Difference would be Singapores offering of richness of Asian culture with safety, cleanliness and stability economically with western modernity.

Internet presence gets more and more important over all other type of media. A well de-signed website which can be easily found over Google or bing (e.g.) can help strengthen brand identity, informs visitors and leaves a first impression on them whether to the user is aware of it or not.

17

Singh, J (2000), Crime Prevention The Singapore Approach

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3.5. Select the right Channels

3.5.1. Direct Sales Channels

Since the target population for tourism is widely geographically dispersed, a direct sales force is uneconomic. Specialised travel agents act as direct sales partners by advising the customers and booking the travel arrangements directly.

We recommend an integrated sales campaign with specific travel agents in the target markets. Once the target markets are defined (China and ASEAN countries), marketing materials are prepared in the local language. Based on their knowledge, travel agents are chosen who are willing to promote the new Singapore campaign. This includes sponsor-ing a travel agent employee who will act as local agent and centre of competence. Pro-motional events are organized by the Singapore tourist board together with the local part-ner with individual invitations to selected customers. The local partner will be invited to Singapore for a week training and information. During this time details of the local market-ing campaign in his area can be adjusted and adapted to local conditions. The local part-ner will use his knowledge how to select and reach the target population. An incentive program will be offered the agent based on holiday bookings.

3.5.2. Direct Channels

We would recommend Singapore Tourism to keep on investing into direct channels. First and foremost as stated above improve the website to enhance usability and therefore user experience. Also, new YouTube promotion clips with the new Your Singapore logo, each focusing on a different audience would add to the brand positioning. At the moment one can only find the Uniquely Singapore clip

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va9awWNjInE) which shows Singapore as a busi-ness city with many attractions for the business traveller. Like the airline Qatar which had an incredible rise is now number three airline of the world (http://www.worldairlineawards.com/main/2010Awards.htm), an advertisement in CNN and BBC would help improve Singapores publicity and brand positioning.

As Singapore wants to improve its publicity in the sector of sports, the further promotion of mega events such as Formula 1 racing or Golf competitions can help on positioning Singapore as a very interesting tourism destination in the long term.

Social media and networking is an increasing and very powerful force of driving travel planning today and is a very valuable and important channel for tourism marketing. By PhocusWright Travel research (2010) it is expected that travellers referred to a hotel or tourism booking site by Facebook18 are also more likely to book travel than those who are referred via search engines like Google. The same is true for TripAdvisor which has be-come the #1 most popular travel website; with 35,382,000 unique monthly visitors it sur-passes Expedia by over 2 million visits (ComScore tourism research 2010). Social media provide a very efficient and economically attractive way of customer acquisition and re-tention. Although, it is important to forget about old marketing approaches as they are not valid within social media and follow few new rules such as active and passive referral marketing19.

Singapore already engages in social media at a discovery and sharing stage such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Tripadvisor. Facebook for example is primarily used as

18

Facebook with more than 700M user is the third biggest population after China and India.

19 Gibs J., Bruich S., (2010) Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression, Nielsen Report, Nielsen Company

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va9awWNjInE

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a platform to have their visitors share their experiences in Singapore. There is higher value within social networks at engagement stages where the tourist board will share, participate and co-create at the highest level. Advanced stages of sharing and participat-ing require community building and community management. An example for co-create is to conduct events within social networks.

In any case, the YourSingapore logo, YourSingapore slogan should come up and be used in a way, that the message is clearly understood (e.g. showing an example of how it is possible to the tourist to individualize his stay. And it should focus on the targeted au-dience as stated earlier.

3.5.3. Indirect Channels

The need to integrate different state-level organization into tourism marketing, in particu-lar nation branding, is widely accepted. Dinnie, Melewar, Seidenfuss and Musa examined the extent for which the key organizations engage in a context of nation branding activi-ties. In particular export promotion organization (EPO), investment agencies (IA). National tourism organizations (NTO) and embassies coordinate their efforts to the principle of co-ordination that characterizes an integrated marketing communications e.g. at some events Singapore can promote their trade, tourism and investment in an occasion where they collaborate with each other or simply help to create a positive image of Singapore.

Another key player is private sector organization and companies, which should be taken into consideration to coordinate activities e.g. Chamber of Commerce, Confederation of industries, and other. An example to coordinate an activity with a private held company can be promoting Tiger Beer and Singapore as a destination to travel to in other coun-tries; coordinated activity between Malayan Breweries Limited and Singapores Tourist Board (STB). It is important to find overlaps between organization, which is important in order to develop and create potential value that can be delivered to targets (for the Sin-gapore Tourist Board potential visitors or attract people to re-visit). For the given example of Tiger Beer it could be an associated image of an exotic waterfront and a certain life style the brewery wants to deliver when people see, drink, and experience their beer. On the other hand the STB will co-sponsor such a campaign and uses this campaign to at-tract people to visit Singapore and experience this exotic waterfront and this life style for real. Similar campaigns had proven success e.g. with Heineken or

A big advantage for Singapore is the size of the country compared to neighbouring coun-tries and very developed and structured organizations. This should imply a high efficiency in coordinating activities between various organizations and definitely can be seen as a competitive advantage e.g. when being invited to a host country Singapores EPO, IA, NTO and embassies must engage not only with local organization but organization from (other) host countries. That helps to build strong networks and relationship that embed a countrys nation branding activities in the host country. It definitely help to define clear guidelines and policies for EPO, IA, NTOS and embassies and whether possible also for private sector. For the private sector it might be recommended to select exclusive or se-lective partner that Singapore thinks of cooperating with and getting the best value and define restrictions to avoid any exploitation of a established brand as it happens for ex-ample with Switzerland when there was a Swiss cross on everything as a symbol for reli-ability.

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3.6. Financial Objectives

The tourism balance of payments reached S$8.2 billion in 2010, with total incoming tour-ist receipts far exceeding outgoing tourist expenditure.

Year Receipts (S$ million) Expenditure (S$ mil-

lion) Balance (S$ million)

2005 12027.4 5974.3 6053.1 2006 12986.3 6424.4 6561.9 2007 14575.9 6919.5 7656.5 2008 15325.9 6979.3 8346.7 2009 12414.0 6859.5 5554.5 2010 15517.5 7339.6 8177.9

A series of natural catastrophes reduced the figures for 2009 (Iceland volcanic dust cloud, Australian floods, Pacific tsunami). 20 However, the latest detailed figures are available for 2009 as follows21. 2010 figures are estimated based in 2010 total and per-centage from 2009.

Major items 2009 Receipts

(S$ million) % of Total Re-

ceipts Assignment

Estimate 2010 (S$ million)

Accommodation 2838 23% 3569 Food & Beverage 1411 11% 1707 Shopping 3281 26% 4034 Local Transport 591 5% 776 Sightseeing / En-tertainment

248 2% 310

Medical 732 6% 931

Major Coun-tries

2009 Receipts (S$ million)

% of Total Receipts

Estimate 2010

(S$ million)

Assignment Forecast 2012

(S$ million)

Revenue Increase

(S$ million) Indonesia 1599 13% 2017 2118 101 China 1052 8% 1241 1502 261 Australia 617 5% 776 815 39 Malaysia 513 4% 621 643 22 Philippines 485 4% 621 652 31 USA 431 3% 466 466 0

By targeting visitors from China in the high-end market segment, we forecast an increase of 10% in the number of visitors. Each visitor we forecast will spend 10% more than be-fore because of the change in visitor type resulting in an increase of 21% in revenue. For the other Asian countries we forecast an increase in 5% due to the changed visitor type. The total revenue increase we forecast to be 454 S$ million.

The budget values provided are estimates to target the Asian markets in particular China. On a prudence concept we assume:

20

Euromonitor International (2011) Travel and Tourism Singapore -Tourism Review

21 Euromonitor International (2011) Annual Report on Tourism Statistics 2009

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Cost of Capital of 10% Inflation negligible Results of investment measurable 12 months after new marketing campaign

The Net Present Value in 2011 of the revenue increase in 2012 is 454 S$ million / 1.1 = 413 S$ million.

Assuming a minimum return investment of 20%, then the maximum expenditure for this project should be 413 / 1.2 = 344 S$ million.

With a budget of 344 S$ million, the marketing project costs are allocated as follows:

Indirect marketing with Travel Agents, training, campaigns, visits to Singapore (ASEAN countries) 100S$ million

Sales Promotion: Direct marketing campaigns, Mailings, Internet (ASEAN coun-tries) 100S$ million

Promotional Events in major Chinese cities with local partners 10S$ million

Advertising: Cooperative campaigns with Singapore Airlines & Tiger Beer 10S$ million

Public Relations & Publicity: Various materials, brochures, sponsoring, participa-tion in travel fairs 124S$ million

The whole project should be managed based on the Integrated Marketing Communica-tions Process (IMC). This plan will be used to evaluate the strategic roles of the marketing channels and combines them to produce an integrated message.

3.7. Strategies

Strengthen the branding positioning by focusing on the target audience and establish and enhance communication channels.

A Second strategy is for a horizontal alliance with Singapore Airlines in developing Sin-gapore cultural awareness.

3.7.1. eService

Assessing the e-service quality of Singapores website www.yoursingapore.com, which incorporates the YourSingapore brand name of Singapore Tourism Board, gives us some knowledge about their service quality as a tourism board, brand positioning and the 11 dimensions of the possibly perceived e-service quality of a visitor of the website (Kottler, Keller, 2010, p. 256).

http://www.yoursingapore.com/

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Figure 6 YourSingapore entry page of website

The first impression of the website is similar to one of a nightlife promoting website; many information and many moving and very disordered pictures. The first picture that catches the eye is a caprice-like sandwich with rice not entirely the food youd expect from an Asiatic multicultural business city.

Using the 11 dimensions by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhotra, we can criticise follow-ing points:

Reliability/Fulfilment:

The website does not represent how Singapore tourism board promotes YourSinga-pore. As they describe it: The focus is visitor-centricity, meaning the experiences are made wholesome and personal, drawing their allure from the breadth and richness of at-

tractions [...] Travellers will be enabled to design their own journeys [...] A multitude of stories told through the eyes of travellers from all over the world [...]. The Website does not give the impression of a personal appeal that allows some indi-viduality and the visitor-centricity cannot be seen. Also, the stories that are promoted cannot be found at first sight and are not personalised.

The website does provide all the information a traveller needs. It also takes heed of the different needs of different target audiences and structured the information correspond-ingly. It also has all the needed new-social-media links younger people use.

Website Design

The entry page is too wild and needs a clear and focused picture, which encourages users to want to stay. A picture of the city with people in front preferably some multicul-tural and well-dressed family would help build up a brand of the city to be multicultural, prosperous, young and welcome to families and couples.

Also, the choice of colour is questionable. Although red is said to be more memorable, together with the black background it is addressing young and teen people more then others. It is hard to read grey font on black background. To address the main target audi-ences (family, couples and business travellers) a different choice of colour set would be more appropriate.

The use of the YourSingapore guide allows putting a personal travel plan together which is a unique and very forward thinking tool. The use of the tool is easy, but you have to browse the website to add items to it, which makes the use again cumbersome.

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The personalisation of the site is accurate as it gives basic information and provides dif-ferent possibilities for personalisation, such as the travel plan, use of iPhone apps, links to Facebook, twitter, Tripadvisor and a mailing list.

The available selection of the website is very encompassing.

Security/Privacy

Security and privacy are not a major concern of a information site as no personal informa-tion except a email address is asked for if you want to sign up for the mailing list.

The flight booking redirects the user to a common booking system.

Customer Service

Although hard to find, the site gives email addresses, phone numbers and addresses for tourist information, visitor centres and enquiries.

Also, the website is very concerned about the wellbeing of the traveller, stating this many times and giving helpful information for flights, arrivals, laws and regulations and other useful information.

Concluding, Singapores web presence has to be improved as it does not address the most important audience and does not add to brand positioning. Also, it does not build on the fame it has to be one of the most secure and clean countries in the world.

3.7.2. Social Media

An engagement within social media has two major aspects in a marketing context, which is of interest for Singapore tourist board: customer acquisition and customer retention.

Getting valuable insights how visitors think of Singapore. These insights help to understand wants and needs as well spot trends and feedbacks. This informa-tion can also used for further segmentations.

Promoting Singapore as a brand and raise brand awareness within these chan-nels to reach out to past visitors and attract them to re-visit and potentially new visitors. A perfect example was given by KLM22

Social media and networks provide a very good capability to position Singapore as a des-tination. It is Important for Singapore to raise awareness and pay serious attention when engaging in social media. Hence another logical step is to integrate existing marketing systems with social media not just to include social media as fixed component of a com-munication strategy but also link Singapores marketing strategy with social media.

3.8. Marketing Mix

Marketing mix should be considered by using the 4 Ps (Products, Price, Promotion, and Placements). The services are recognized to be individual, integrated, and a unique ex-perience to the visitor. The pricing is attractive and appropriate for the target segments. It is important to incorporate direct and indirect channels to promote the valuable brand Your Singapore. For distribution if we choose various manly selective and intensive channels mainly in Asia and selected wealthy Western countries.

22

Note: KLM launched a campaign based on social network Twitter. Further details can be gathered on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-JRoY7_LU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-JRoY7_LU

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3.9. Marketing Research

Additional information provided by various data providers supply more detail on demo-graphics, socioeconomics and preferences on targeted segments which will not or is diffi-cult to be captured by Singapore itself e.g. relevant segmentation on categories that can be associated to above this particular visitor segment is provided by e.g. Tapestry, Niel-sen, and specialized data provider in Asia. For Singapore it is important to fully make use of their statistics to profile visitor better and choice sub-system to enrich visitors. This will help much better define and create value.

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4. Implementation

With the various Marketing mix elements that are used in Singapores Tourism marketing campaign,23managing the communication is an important task.

To use the example of British Gas24, an assembly of people responsible for the different marketing mix, is held regularly, to review the Integrated Marketing communications Strategy. This collaboration of members of different marketing communications ensures the continuance of the objective of the marketing strategy and also being aware of the dif-ferent communication tools used to maximise marketing promotional activities.

Using the 4Ps analysis is part of the review process. Performing SWOT analysis on the Marketing strategy also aids in keeping up the progressive nature of consumers.

The goal of the integrated communications strategy is to create and keep consistent goal objective across the media platforms. By repeatedly analysing and reviewing the commu-nications strategy, the tourism board will be able to assess the correct budget required for marketing and also justify the need for having the communication mix.

Looking at past marketing strategy, advertising was by far the most effective marketing communication reaching mass market and achieving great awareness. However, market-ing communication has also developed to become more sophisticated. Where advertising used to be the predominant marketing communication tool, this is now replaced by inter-net. Consumers are more sophisticated in keeping current with latest offerings, and with a few clicks are able to garner all the information they require. In future, the marketing communication can develop towards more customised personal approach to consumers without being invasive. It becomes imperative for Marketers to review and analyse their current marketing strategy effectiveness, to keep up with progressive society.

23

Tourism New Zealand, official website of the New Zealand Tourism Board

24 Kotler P., Keller K.L., Marketing Management, Selected Chapters for use by the University of Strathclyde, Edition 13, 2010 p. 359

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5. References

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Kracht J. and Wang Y., Examining the tourism distribution channel: evolution and trans-formation, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 22 No. 5, 2010

Dinnie K. Melewar T. C., Seidenfuss K. U., Musa G., Nation branding and integrated mar-keting communications: an ASEAN perspective, International Marketing Review, Vol. 27, No. 4, 2010, pp. 388-403

Lucarelli A., Berg P.O., City branding: a state-of-the-art review of the research domain, Journal of Place Management and Development, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2011, page 9-27

Ryan, J. Silvanto S., A brand for all nations, The development of the World Heritage Brand in emerging markets, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2011, page 305-318

Tourism New Zealand, official website of the New Zealand Tourism Board

Kotler P., Keller K.L., Marketing Management, Selected Chapters for use by the Univer-sity of Strathclyde, Edition 13, 2010

Gibs J., Bruich S., (2010) Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression, Nielsen Report, Nielsen Company

McDonald M., Smith B.D., Ward K., Marketing Due Intelligence Reconnecting Strategy to Share Price, 2007

Yee, W.F., (2009) Nation Branding: A case study of Singapore, University Libraries, Uni-versity of Nevada, Las Vegas

Seth G., Purple Cow Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, Penguin Books

Balakrishnan M. S., Nekhili R., Lewis C., Destination brand components, International Journal of Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research, Vol.5 No 1, 2011, page 4-25

Hoon L., (2009) PEST Singapore Business Environment, International Business School University Tekenologi Malaysia City

Rewtrakunphaiboon W, (2007) ASEAN IMAGE POSITIONING: THE CASE STUDY OF SINGAPORE

Gary B, (2011), Asia Pacifics Tourist Boom, business travel connexion

Singapore Sports Council, Sports Participation [Web Page] URL http://www.ssc.gov.sg/publish/Corporate/en/participation/participation.html

Focus Singapore, A Complete Guide for Business, Education and Travel Information [Web Page] URL http://www.focussingapore.com/information-singapore/cost-of-living/singapore-working-hours.html

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ASEAN Basketball League, branding and marketing [Web Page] URL www.aseanbasketballleague.com

Singapore Economic Development Board, [Web Page] URL http://www.edb.gov.sg/edb/sg/en_uk/index.html

Sportsbusiness, 2010 Ultimate Sports Cities Awards [Web Page] URL http://www.sportbusiness.com/awards/usc/2010

Red Sports (Thursday, November 4th, 2010), singporean online sport news [Web Page] URL http://redsports.sg/sports-calendar/

Singapore Sports Council, Sports In Singapore [Web Page] URL http://www.ssc.gov.sg/publish/Corporate/en/about/Sporting_Singapore_An_Overview.html

Singapore Economic Development Board, Year 2010 In Review [Web Page] URL http://www.edb.gov.sg/edb/sg/en_uk/index/news/articles/edb_year_2010_in_review.html

Singapore Tourism Board, Tourism 2015 [Web Page] URL https://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/abo/abo08.asp

YouTube, Kuoni advertising sports in Singapore [Web Page] URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-HiAPs_dzE

YouTube, YourSingapore promotes Festivals and Events [Web Page] URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66CH1lHegvg

http://www.ssc.gov.sg/publish/Corporate/en/about/Sporting_Singapore_An_Overview.htmlhttp://www.ssc.gov.sg/publish/Corporate/en/about/Sporting_Singapore_An_Overview.htmlhttp://www.edb.gov.sg/edb/sg/en_uk/index/news/articles/edb_year_2010_in_review.htmlhttps://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/abo/abo08.asphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-HiAPs_dzEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66CH1lHegvg