Singapore rolls out plans to recover, airline chiefs gather in Chester to talk about the future of flight
THE day Singapore Tourism Board (STB) rolled out its plans to bring back the destination with a vengeance, only better and reimagined, I was on a flight from Singapore to the UK which might herald a picture of the future that hopefully awaits destinations in Asia – free and open travel without having to show vaccination certificates, tests and insurance forms, no apps to download and no forms to fill.
At the check-in counter, I remarked to the staff, “This is the first flight I haven’t had to show anything.” She smiled, “Yes, they’ve removed everything in the UK.”
On the flight, when I asked the cabin crew if I have to fill in any forms on arrival, she smiled and said, “Nothing.”
I smiled back in empathy, and reiterated. “This is the first flight I haven’t had to show anything.”
She replied, “Let’s hope this is the way forward.”
As travellers-in-arms, living in a region that’s opening cautiously with some rules still in place, we are excited yet tentative, thrilled but nervous. Are we really nearly at the end of the tunnel and the light we reach is that of free and open travel, the way it used to be?
At the Tourism Industry Conference 2022, STB’s chief executive Keith Tan was quoted as saying, “We have survived, and the light at the end of the tunnel is real and getting bigger.”
I had girded myself to face long queues at Manchester airport – having followed the news and getting warnings from friends in the UK. Armed with Kindle, phone and Airpods to endure the wait, I arrived at the immigration hall to find I was the only “All Other Passports” passenger and breezed right through.
“I was expecting queues,” I told the officer, as he asked me what I was here for. “Oh, that’s Terminal 1, they haven’t gotten their act together for some reason,” he says with the pride of someone in a team who has.
An hour later, I was at Carden Park Hotel in Chester, Cheshire County, where the first CAPA physical event in two years is being held. This is the annual high-level airline CEO gathering that had traditionally gathered in Dublin and now has a new home in this county that’s on the border with Northern Wales.
A sign at the hotel says mask-wearing is now voluntary for staff and guests. No one is volunteering. I see full faces, full smiles as I walk in.
At the cocktail party last night, it was all noise, lots of drinks, industry friends reuniting after two years apart, no social distancing requirements in place. Almost everyone in the UK that I spoke to at the event has had Covid – almost like a rite of passage – and have put it behind them. There are some who are still nervous about this free-for-all. “It’s still around, but we have to get on with it, I suppose,” said one.
Industry friends reuniting after two years apart at the CAPA event in Carden Park.
In Singapore, even though mask wearing outdoors is no longer mandatory, when I left, the majority of people were still in masks. We humans need time to adjust to old freedoms.
Singapore, as a destination, is certainly working hard to adjust to the new world of travel with what it terms as an innovative and reimagined playbook. STB’s Tan said it would differentiate itself with high service levels, quality of experiences and guest engagement. “Many competitors have reopened, everyone is intensifying their inbound tourism campaigns. We must do likewise, in ways that differentiate us,” he was quoted in this article by Travel Weekly Asia. (Read this article for plans revealed at the conference.)
He’s right. This early reopening period will be an intense battle between destinations. Right now, for us in Asia, longhaul travel is trumping it – it’s just easier and freer. Destinations in Asia will get there – while here, I read the news that Indonesia is scrapping the need for an on-arrival PCR test (unless you have a high temperature).
With each passing day we hope travel will get easier in our region, and Singapore will be the first to benefit, as business travellers and events return to a city that’s always knocked it out of the park when it comes to international gatherings.
The top 10 visitor markets of Singapore will be prioritised, according to STB’s marketing group executive chief Chang Chee Pey, with several B2C initiatives already rolled out in India, Australia and Indonesia.
This week, IATA reported that air travel posted a strong rebound in February 2022 compared to January 2022, as Omicron-related impacts moderated outside of Asia. The war in Ukraine, which began on 24 February, did not have a major impact on traffic levels.
“The recovery in air travel is gathering steam as governments in many parts of the world lift travel restrictions. States that persist in attempting to lock-out the disease, rather than managing it, as we do with other diseases, risk missing out on the enormous economic and societal benefits that a restoration of international connectivity will bring,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.
Well, let’s see what the gathering of airline chiefs in Manchester have to say about their business going forward. They couldn’t have picked a lovelier setting – 1,000 acres of country land (I don’t know what to call it being an urban-nite), with golfers putting in the greens (I am not a golfer) and Canadian geese frolicking in the ponds (I’ve always wanted to be a migratory bird).
Watch this space.
