The Big Read: Fancy spending weeks on a tropical island? S’pore aims to shed

 
“The (vouchers) really helped us a lot. During that period we were making more money than pre-Covid,” he said. 

However, the voucher scheme expired on March 31, just a day before a new simplified framework kicked in to allow fully vaccinated travellers to enter Singapore without quarantine.

Mr Foo said that with Singaporeans no longer able to use the vouchers and overseas travel resuming, his revenue from domestic tourism fell by 90 per cent.

“Local tourism went down, but there was an increase in foreigners,” he said, adding that his revenue from foreign tourists is now at 30 per cent of the pre-pandemic level. “It will take time, and we don’t see the numbers going (all the way) up in the first instance.”

Likewise, Mr Colin Goh, head chef and tour experience manager of Let’s Go Tour Singapore, has had to adapt his tours to suit local tastes by offering a more in-depth look into Singapore’s history and food culture through tours to places such as Kampong Lorong Buangkok and a kelong near Pulau Ubin.

This was something that locals enjoyed more compared to a generic introductory tour of Singapore. During the last two years, Mr Goh’s business revenue from local tourists rose more than threefold compared to pre-Covid-19.

Before the crisis, his firm did mainly cycling tours for foreign tourists, taking them to different culinary hotspots in Singapore.

Like Mr Foo, Mr Goh has also seen local demand drop by about 90 per cent since April 1.

Nevertheless, with more foreigners visiting Singapore, Mr Goh said his cycling tours are seeing an uptake again. He is now getting about 20 sign-ups a week from tourists, although this is still a fraction of the 100-odd that his company used to get pre-pandemic.

To adapt to the shifting demand, he is making changes to his offerings. “We are coming up with more generic tours that are open for everyone, whichever country you are from,” said Mr Goh. “We will downsize our local offering, but we have a lot of things in our (toolbox).” 

“With all the new rules coming up, we cannot have all our eggs in one basket… Once a market is closed, then the (customers) are gone.”

Apart from the tour operators, local attractions are also readjusting. 

Mr Ong Kian Ann, Gardens by the Bay’s director of business development, said that over the past month, the attraction at Marina Bay saw a threefold jump in overseas visitors, with most coming from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea and India.

“That said, the current foreign throughput is still only about 15 per cent of our pre-Covid visitorship numbers, hence there is still some way before we can expect the return of pre-Covid visitorship,” he said.

Mr Benjamin Tan, Mandai Wildlife Group deputy chief executive officer and chief commercial officer, said that the group — which manages Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park and River Wonders — is “not seeing a significant trend yet” in overseas visitors at its attractions.

“But with international borders steadily opening up and families and friends reuniting in Singapore, we are starting to welcome overseas guests in our parks again,…