How Singapore travel companies can stay afloat when tourism disappears

• Singapore’s borders have been closed since March 2020, with little domestic travel.
• We spoke to three local tour operators to find out how they are navigating the pandemic.
• One company said they switched to local experiences, but they were only getting 50% of their pre-pandemic revenue.

When Singapore closed its borders in March 2020, tourist arrivals to the island were down 99% from the previous year. Then there is the cancellation request.

“About 70% of our bookings are canceled and 30% are postponed,” said Krystal Tan, director of Blue Sky Escapes, a local tour company known for creating unique experiences in destinations such as Bhutan and Peru.

She is not alone.

“Overnight, bookings ground to a halt,” said Jess Yap, co-founder of travel agency Intriq Journey, which launched in Singapore last January.

Travel agencies around the world have been forced to find new sources of revenue as borders close due to the pandemic. This is especially true for those in the business of overseas tour planning – and by extension, tour operators in Singapore. There is almost no domestic travel in the city-state the size of New York City.

Insider spoke to three Singapore-based travel companies to find out how they are staying afloat after their core businesses disappear.

A New Way to Explore Singapore

Pre-pandemic bespoke luxury travel specialist Quotient Travel was known for long-distance multi-country vacations that might include visiting the Sahara Desert or dining at three-Michelin-star Jiro Kiyabashi in Tokyo.

Javiny Lim, co-founder and managing director of Quotient Travel, said the travel company typically sells 150 holidays a year. In the second quarter of last year, it had zero bookings.

Quotient Travel has since designed eight new tour itineraries. Some of these activities, such as “Food, Pray and Love in Balestier” ($71 per person), take you to iconic landmarks and hidden similar spots, such as one of Singapore’s last remaining traditional bakeries and coffee roasters.

Others, like The Great Singapore Road Trip, draw inspiration from iconic holidays in places like New Zealand and Japan. The Singapore Road Trip is a two-day self-drive itinerary for $5 per person that includes local “national parks” (Singapore has no designated national parks), a former Grand Prix street circuit, and a beachfront lunch in a neoclassical building 1910.

Blue Sky Escapes also offers new ways to explore Singapore.

A popular choice is the last one to visit in Singapore kampung Lorong Buangkok (Village) ($315 for up to five people), a mishmash of quaint zinc-roofed houses — complete with vegetable gardens and walking chickens — defies time.

“There are 29 families living here – most of the residents don’t speak English and don’t even have mobile phones,” Tan said. “It’s a great opportunity to go back in time and find out what”kampung Spirit’ is real.

Blue Sky Escapes has also found a niche with its wellness retreat, which debuted in January. These include three-day, two-night retreats starting at $2,590 per person, which claim to help guests “find themselves” through meditation and meditation. Held at Villa Samadhi, a restored century-old mansion in the Labrador Nature Reserve, each retreat includes specific movements and sound treatments.

New audiences and shorter experiences

When the Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble was first canceled in November, Intriq Journey’s Yap realized she needed to “do more than[sell]accommodation and cruises going nowhere.”

She also found herself having to revisit her target audience: The industry veteran was dealing with clients who typically spent $10,000 to $12,000 per person per trip.

Last year, she switched gears, offering virtual tours starting at $80 a person. One of these was a two-day Beijing and Chengdu “trip” for a local university, allowing students to see the Great Wall of China and explore Chengdu’s vibrant street food scene.

“It’s not a pre-recorded presentation. There’s a real tour guide, a host,” said Yap, adding that guests can interact with the tour guide and meet new people in real time. “It’s real life, straight from the field.”

Quotient Travel’s typical budget guideline for a couple’s European holiday is $750 per person per day, Lim said. That number is much lower now, she added.

“For us, the main change across all travel will be a wider customer base,” Lim said.

A blow to an already struggling industry

The pandemic has dealt a further blow to an already stressed industry.

In the Q3 2019 GlobalData survey, only 17% of global respondents said they book through an in-store travel agency. Nonetheless, travel agencies in Singapore have remained relatively resilient throughout the pandemic. Of the 137 travel agencies that closed in Singapore between February 2020 and May 2021, only 38 cited the pandemic as the reason for ceasing operations, according to TTG Asia.

This is thanks in large part to the Singaporean government’s support for the local tourism industry. These include wage subsidies, license fee waivers, and the distribution of $320 million in vouchers for citizens to spend at local hotels and attractions.

All three Singapore-based agencies that Insider spoke to said they were not downsizing their teams, even though salary reductions are part of all their business continuity plans.

Lim said Quotient Travel had implemented a three-day work week for the past 15 months, taking pay cuts of up to 25 per cent. Tan and her husband, who is also her business partner, stopped receiving wages for a year. At one point, Tan’s sales team turned to event planning and content marketing, while Lim says her company expanded into an online luxury jewelry store.

“Especially challenging having to show up every day without exception – through difficult times – ready to lead and shore up team morale and navigate such a volatile, uncertain environment. We are in full testing mode , it’s not clear what will stick,” Tan said.

Still, the new experience is a far cry from what the company typically earns.

New experiences account for about 50 percent of Blue Sky Escapes’ typical revenue, Tan said. Lim said Quotient Travel’s local travel accounted for less than 1% of its general revenue.

Yap said the next six months would be particularly challenging as the government’s wage support scheme ends in September. She still hopes to resume some form of leisure travel by the final quarter of the year, when at least three-quarters of Singapore’s population will be vaccinated.