Why Singapore Must Keep Tour Startups Well-Oiled
Photo Credit: A Singapore neighborhood. New players go deeper into a place. Flickr / Runako Godfrey
Skift Take
New players create unique tours such as an inside look at the disappearing trades of Singapore. If they aren’t encouraged and supported, the city’s inbound travel agencies could disappear.
In a country like Singapore — small and compact, easy to get around because public transportation works like a dream, multilingual including widely spoken English and Mandarin — one can argue that inbound travel agencies are a sunset industry.
Visitors don’t need them to get to Chinatown, Little India, or the Malay village of Kampung Glam; to shopping havens such as Marina Bay Sands or Orchard Road; to the myriad attractions on Sentosa Island or Wildlife Reserves Singapore. A Grab, Gojek, or mass rapid transit will do, and in-destination tours and activities platforms such as Klook allow for booking a ticket on demand and without fuss.
New players that can create unique tours are key to ensuring the survival of inbound travel agencies, a crucial tourism sector. They also help keep Singapore interesting and fascinating without the country having to physically build new tourism attractions. Already Singapore’s product development is thinning with limited land being a factor
