In addition to travel agents, also present at Singapore EXPO Halls 3 and 4 were airlines, cruises, national tourism organisations and attractions.
NATAS Holidays 2018, the annual three-day travel fair organised by National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), saw 720 booths and more than 90 exhibitors from around the world, with 10 of them exhibiting for the first time.
In addition to travel agents, also present at Singapore EXPO Halls 3 and 4 were airlines, cruises, national tourism organisations and attractions.
Also present was guest-of-honour His Excellency Ahn Young Jip, ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, as well as Steven Ler, president of NATAS.
Ler opened the event by driving home the burgeoning tourism market in Singapore.
“Singaporean travellers are ever teeming with excitement and anticipation for their next vacation, with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority logging the outbound departures of Singapore residents in June at a 4.2% increase from 2017,” he said.
Furthermore, Ler noted that Singaporean travellers were increasingly looking at off-the-beaten-path travel destinations. This, according to Ler, keeps travel agents and industry players on their toes and forces them to adapt and innovate.
Lastly, Ler touched on the various ways that his organisation has been helping travel agents to keep up with technological innovations. For example, NATAS recently worked with Singapore Tourism Board to train travel agents on how to improve everything from branding and business operations to customer relations using the latest software.
Ahn expressed his appreciation of Singaporeans’ love for South Korea food, fashion and culture, “Korea has maintained a close partnership with Singapore in the last few decades. In particular, there has been a surge in two-way tourism between Korean and Singapore. Indeed, we broke our record of mutual tourist exchanges of 840,000 people last year.”
Ahn also took the opportunity to promote South Korea’s various cultural offerings, including the seasonal offerings and festivals, as well as the country’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites and cultural heritage.
To top off the ceremony, music and dance performances from different countries included an Uzbek traditional dance from the Embassy of Uzbekistan, as well as a Taiwanese aboriginal PawPaw drum performance from the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.