Dai Bin | Forward-looking thinking and high-quality development of China-Singapore tourism exchanges - Speech at the 7th Singapore Tourism Board Greater China Conference

At the invitation of the Singapore Tourism Board, the President of the China Tourism Academy attended the 2024 Singapore Tourism Board Greater China Conference and delivered a keynote speech entitled "Forward-looking Thinking and High-quality Development of China-Singapore Tourism Exchanges". The full text is shared below:

Dear Ms. Ou Yanmei, Director of the Singapore Tourism Board, and colleagues from the tourism industry of China and Singapore, good morning!

As a global strategic partner of the Singapore Tourism Board, I am honored to represent the China Tourism Academy to witness the Singapore Tourism Board once again organize its MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Forums and Exhibitions) in China after the new leisure vacation brand "In Singapore" The latest brand "The World's Best Exhibition City" launch event. Singapore has three major advantages in the global MICE market: connectivity, innovation and sustainability. It also has a foundation of trust and security. With the support of strategic partners such as China Literature Group, Singapore will surely be able to achieve the expected goals.

01

The tourism economy is entering a new cycle of prosperity and development

Since 2023, both supply and demand in the tourism market have been booming, holiday travel has been booming, and inbound and outbound tourism has steadily recovered. During the Spring Festival and Labor Day of the Year of the Dragon, major economic indicators such as the number of domestic tourist trips and total domestic tourism expenditure have exceeded the levels of the same period in 2019. During the just-concluded Dragon Boat Festival holiday, a total of 110 million domestic tourism trips were made across the country, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%; domestic tourists spent a total of 40.35 billion yuan on travel, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%. The emotional value, consumption promotion, investment promotion and employment promotion potential of the tourism industry have been fully unleashed, and the tourism supply chain, value chain and innovation chain are recovering at an accelerated pace. The tourism industry has entered a virtuous cycle in which "quality demand guides supply innovation, and innovative supply drives demand upgrading". It integrates cross-border and coordinates development with other industries, and new products, new formats and new business models continue to emerge. On May 17 this year, the National Tourism Development Conference was held in Beijing. General Secretary Xi Jinping made important instructions on tourism work, fully affirming the outstanding achievements of tourism, which has increasingly become an emerging strategic pillar industry and a people's livelihood industry and happiness industry with significant characteristics of the times, emphasizing that "efforts should be made to improve the modern tourism system, accelerate "Building a powerful tourism country" and "promoting the high-quality development of the tourism industry for steady and long-term development". At present, the culture and tourism system, party committees and governments at all levels have thoroughly studied the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on tourism work, implemented the work deployment of the National Tourism Development Conference, and focused on implementing domestic tourism promotion and inbound tourism promotion plans.

Tourism is a bridge for spreading civilization, exchanging culture and promoting friendship. From the people-to-people diplomacy at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the current promotion of international exchanges and cooperation in the form of China-Foreign Tourism Year, the development of tourism since the founding of New China has always been a disseminator of Chinese civilization and a people-to-people envoy of cultural exchanges. The determination to develop inbound tourism in the new era has never wavered, and policy tools have become more and more perfect. At present, my country has signed visa-free agreements for ordinary passports with 23 countries, and implemented unilateral visa-free agreements with 12 countries, which will be extended to 2025. With the growth of national strength and the optimization of policies, the outbound tourism market for Chinese citizens will continue to expand. It is unnecessary and impossible to continue to seek to maintain a surplus in tourism service trade with any country at any time. When tourists go out, the protection of rights and interests must keep up, and exchanges and cooperation must also keep pace with the times.

02

Planning all-round tourism cooperation between China and Singapore with forward-looking thinking

China-Singapore tourism exchanges benefit from political mutual trust, and it is necessary to plan all-round industrial cooperation with forward-looking thinking. In March 2023, President Xi Jinping and visiting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong jointly announced that China-Singapore relations have been upgraded to an "all-round, high-quality, forward-looking partnership". China and Singapore are important partners, and the relationship between the two countries has always been forward-looking, strategic, and exemplary. China has placed Singapore as a priority in its neighboring diplomacy. Looking at the development of world tourism, stable bilateral relations and constructive multilateral mechanisms have always been key elements of international tourism exchanges and cooperation, and mutual visits between heads of state and government are the most direct and effective promoters of the destination image. Without this point, even the most professional tourism promotion activities and the most lively self-media marketing may be beach castles and castles in the air. In this regard, we must have a clear understanding and follow it in practice.

China and Singapore are important inbound tourist source countries and outbound tourist destination countries for each other, with large scale, fast growth and high satisfaction. From 2010 to 2019, the annual mutual visitor scale of the two sides increased from 1.8294 million to 3.8172 million, with an average annual growth rate of 8.52%. Among them, the number of Chinese citizens who visited Singapore as their first stop increased by an average of 14.57% annually in the past ten years, reaching 2.8087 million in 2019, which is 2.8 times the number of tourists from Singapore visiting China in the same period. According to data from the past two years, Singapore is also one of the fastest recovering overseas tourist destinations in the Chinese outbound market. Continuous monitoring from the China Tourism Academy shows that the quality of Singapore's tourism services has always been recognized by Chinese outbound tourists, and the satisfaction of tourists has been around 80 points and has been firmly in the forefront of all countries. In 2023, among the 27 overseas countries or regions included in the monitoring, the satisfaction of Chinese outbound tourists with Singapore is as high as 85.25, ranking first. It is gratifying that from 2015 to 2019, the satisfaction level of Singaporean tourists visiting China has remained in the "satisfied" range above 80 points, and has stabilized and rebounded in the past two years.

The tourism exchanges between China and Singapore benefit from the mutual recognition of tourists, and we need to continuously improve the service quality and tourist satisfaction. In the minds of Chinese tourists, "Only after going to Singapore can you know what a garden city really looks like", "Changi Airport has been rated as the world's number one airport for ten consecutive years, and it truly combines nature and modern architecture", "If it is a family hotel, it must be Capella in Sentosa, the geographical environment is more suitable for bringing babies, Universal Studios and Water Park are there, and it is also very, very beautiful".

Bak Kut Teh, due to an accidental addition of pork bones into the tea soup, has been continuously improved and has become a famous local delicacy. Not only locals love it, tourists check in, but also gourmets flock to it." China's history, culture and modern development achievements have left a deep impression on Singaporean tourists. "China is very big, developing rapidly, with beautiful scenery and good consumption." The people I met while traveling in China were very kind and it was not difficult to communicate with them. They were very friendly." "(Beijing Xinqiao Hotel) is very cost-effective near Wangfujing. There are many kinds of breakfasts sold outside the hotel every morning. It is cheap and convenient. Exit B2 of Chongwenmen MRT Station is just around the corner, which is so convenient." With the implementation of more visa, immigration, cruise and payment facilitation policies and the improvement of the consumption environment, more tourists from China and New Zealand will surely visit the other country.

03

Taking conference and award tourism as the focus of high-quality development

Economic and trade exchanges promote tourism exchanges and will also expand new space for the MICE market. In October 2008, the two governments signed the China-Singapore Free Trade Area Agreement, and the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Upgrade Protocol officially came into effect in October 2019. In November 2015, the Singapore Chinese Cultural Center was officially opened for operation. In 2022, the total bilateral trade between China and New Zealand will exceed US$100 billion, and in 2023 it will be US$108.393 billion. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce of China, as of the end of 2021, China's direct investment stock in Singapore was US$67.2 billion, and the number of Chinese-funded enterprises in Singapore was approximately 8,500. According to Singapore statistics, China has remained Singapore's largest destination for foreign direct investment for 14 consecutive years. Its main projects include three intergovernmental cooperation projects, Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-City, China-Singapore (Chongqing) Strategic Interconnection Demonstration Project, and one The national-level cooperation project Guangzhou Knowledge City, as well as Jilin Food Zone, Xinchuan Science and Technology Innovation Park, Nanjing Eco-Tech Island, etc. The continued growth of investment and trade has laid the market foundation for business, conferences, exhibitions and incentive travel between China and New Zealand, and has become a new blue ocean for travel service innovation.

Chinese MICE companies are growing, and Singapore is expected to become the world's top destination for MICE tourism. According to a special survey conducted by the National Tourism Network last fall, 27% of travel agents said that MICE accounted for more than 50% of their total business travel business, and 84% of the surveyed companies had established MICE departments. This means that MICE tourism has formed a relatively independent professional field and market segment in China, and the tourism industry generally holds positive and optimistic expectations for MICE tourism. Affected by factors such as proximity, high cost performance, complete supporting systems, and high level of professionalism, 92% of the respondents ranked Singapore as a destination for MICE travel, and 18% ranked Singapore as a global MICE travel destination. top priority position. The interviewees also gave directional opinions on improving MICE tourism services, such as improving price competitiveness, policy support for venue rentals and hotels, and meeting the demand for extended leisure experiences. It is hoped that the two governments will increase support for MICE travel agents, implement visa and customs clearance facilitation policies such as "one visa for multiple travels, transit visa exemption, and port visa" for business people, and coordinate to improve the efficiency of public services related to MICE travel and business service quality. Continuously enrich the supply of tourism products, continue to optimize the tourism consumption environment, and better meet the diverse, personalized and quality needs of international tourists including MICE.

Author | Dai Bin Editor | Liu Xin Source | China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) Please indicate the author and source for reprinting