Changi Airport Group (CAG) announced the launch of its ‘Changi Stopovers’ programme, aimed at enticing passengers travelling through Changi Airport to stop over in Singapore and explore the city.

‘Changi Stopovers’ will be promoted jointly by CAG and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to overseas travellers in SGD 3.2 million (INR 16.15 crore) marketing partnership spanning two years. Under the programme, passengers who book a stopover package on the Changi Stopovers website will be provided with complimentary one-way airport-hotel transfer (by coach) and a mobile SIM card worth SGD 10 (INR 500). Packages are available from SGD 63 (INR 3180) per person onwards.

Peh Ke-Wei, Vice President for Passenger Development, CAG said, “We’re excited to launch ‘Changi Stopovers in Singapore’ with strong support from the Singapore Tourism Board. This programme is part of our continued efforts in strengthening offerings at Changi Airport, and to sustain and attract passengers who choose to stop over in Singapore. We are also working with our airline and travel trade partners to offer this stopover programme via their sales channels in the coming months. At Changi, we always aim to present our passengers with the best travelling experience. With Jewel Changi Airport opening its doors next year, its myriad of lifestyle offerings and attractions will also offer an enhanced stopover experience for our passengers.”

Jacqueline Ng, Director, Marketing Partnerships & Planning, STB said, “We’re pleased to partner Changi Airport Group in the Changi Stopovers programme as it enables us to reach out to a largely untapped audience. Through the offers in the Stopovers programme, we hope more transfer passengers would be convinced to stay in Singapore to explore all that our city and its myriad experiences can offer to make their entire trip even more memorable.”

Transfer passengers currently make up about 30% of Changi Airport’s total traffic, with passenger movements from Australia and India registering as top contributors to transfer traffic at Changi. India is Changi’s sixth largest country market, with the airport handling 4.3 million passenger movements in 2017. Last year, more than 730,000 passengers from India travelled through Changi Airport, onwards to countries including Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand. Singapore is connected to 15 Indian cities including top metros like Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai, with more than 250 weekly services operated by eight airlines.

The post Changi Airport launches new programme to woo transit passengers appeared first on TravHQ.

Opened in 1981, Changi Airport is the 7^th busiest international airport of the world. It serves around 100 airlines flying to about 320 cities via 80 countries and territories globally. Often termed as the Best Airport in the World, Changi Airport has received multiple awards supporting the statement. The airport offers hassle free experience and wide range of entertainment options for the travellers and keeps innovating to further enhance the travellers’ experience.

We spoke with Mr. Ivan Tan, Senior Vice President, Corporate & Marketing Communications for Changi Airport Group to learn more about the factors driving the airport’s growth and the group’s future plans. Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

You are witnessing a stupendous growth compared to last year. In a year that marks SG50 celebrations, what’s the biggest attributer of this growth?

Changi Airport handled 45.5 million passenger movements in the first ten months of 2015, a 2% increase from the same period last year. During the year, travel demand was affected by market-specific as well as environmental factors like the haze situation in Southeast Asia. In addition, the weakening of regional currencies, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, against the Singapore Dollar has made travel to Singapore more expensive for a number of our key source markets.

But despite the challenges, we continued to make good progress with our efforts to woo new airlines, increase flights and grow Changi’s connectivity. During the year, a slate of new airlines joined the Changi network, such as Air New Zealand, Batik Air, Thai Lion Air and Myanmar National Airlines. At the same time, many existing airlines have been adding new flights to both current and new destinations. We have seen Singapore-based airlines like Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, Tigerair and Scoot adding new flights, including to India. For instance, Tigerair has commenced its new service to Lucknow in December, and Singapore Airlines increased services to Mumbai. Other airlines, including ANA, EVA Air, Garuda Indonesia, Malindo Air, Qantas, Qatar Airways and Xiamen Airlines, have also added flights to Changi.

After a period of negative growth, the Thailand market has bounced back strongly, continuing to show healthy growth. Meanwhile, markets such as China and Vietnam have also continued to perform well due to their strong travel fundamentals. If economic and market conditions remain stable, we are optimistic that Changi Airport will continue to register positive passenger traffic growth for this year.

You have digital initiatives such as photo-booths to capture a traveller’s experience of airport’s services. How are these assisting in a better airport altogether?

At Changi, we do not just think about how we can meet our passengers’ needs, but our philosophy is to go one step further to delight them, by making the airport experience engaging and memorable. With the advent of social media and mobile connectivity, sharing travel photos has become almost a must-do for every leisure traveller. Our Social Tree at Terminal 1 was introduced as a fun way of letting our passengers capture their moments at Changi, for the dual purpose of sharing on social media, as well as storing this image on the interactive installation. The Social Tree acts as a time capsule from which passengers can retrieve their images taken at Changi, even years later when they revisit. This is just one example of the many facilities we have at Changi to give our passengers an enjoyable time, which include our themed gardens, movie theatres and swimming pool. We also organise activities for passengers and visitors to enjoy, such as this year’s Star Wars themed year-end festive celebrations that are ongoing right now. Together, these serve to make Changi Airport the magical start to one’s holiday, rather than an inconsequential stop in their travel journey.

You also run periodic campaigns such as the ‘#UnlockCelebrations this Diwali with Birds In Flight’ to engage with the Indian diaspora/visitors from India. What’s the purpose behind these campaigns?

With India being one of the key markets for Changi Airport, we see a growing increase in India passenger traffic for both the Singapore market and also positioning Changi Airport as a regional air hub. The campaign – #UnlockCelebrations is targeted at both young and family travellers. The campaign offers an opportunity to travel during the festive Diwali season and uses the occasion to bring friends and families together. Also, in capturing the insight on Indian travellers desiring a fly-cruise vacation, the campaign also offers various fly-cruise packages through partnering with a renowned cruise operator – Royal Caribbean International.

Ivan Tan, Senior Vice President, Corporate & Marketing Communications, Changi Airport Group

On the digital front, Changi Airport has been leading with its mobile applications, state-of-art website including variants to welcome visitors from countries such as India. What’s the overall role they are playing in enhancing passenger experience?

India is a fast adopter in technology and we see a lot of online activities pertaining to travel bookings, reviews and forums. Being proficient on social networks as well, there is strong media consumption among the top-tier India cities and we see Indian travellers taking to the Internet when it comes to travel intent. By deploying our messaging, contests and bookings on our geo-targeted Changi Airport website, we have witnessed a strong take-up in terms of contest participation, social engagement as well as booking conversions.

As we step into 2016, what are your thoughts and ideas on an airport experience of the future?

As travellers get increasingly sophisticated, the bar for the perfect airport experience gets higher. At Changi, we are cognisant of the need to continually refresh and reinvent what we offer, in order to retain our attractiveness as an air hub. To this end, we have a number exciting projects in the pipeline, which will take the airport experience at Changi to the next level when they are completed before the end of this decade.

Jewel Changi Airport, one of our key projects that are currently underway, will significantly enhance Changi’s appeal as a destination. Sited at the heart of the airport in front of Terminal 1, Jewel is a world-class lifestyle complex that will offer a wide range of leisure attractions, attractive retail offerings, as well as travel-related facilities for airport passengers. These include a huge five-storey garden, housing one of Singapore’s largest indoor collections of plants in Singapore and a breathtaking 40-metre high central waterfall, complete with play and dining facilities integrated within the idyllic surroundings. Designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie, Jewel’s stunning dome-shaped glass façade is envisaged to become an iconic landmark in the airport landscape.

This iconic project will add to Changi an exciting tourist destination, providing our passengers with a myriad of refreshing experiences that they never imagined would be possible in an airport.

There is always something new going on at Changi Airport. You can learn more at changiairport.com. For campaigns and deals specific to Indian travellers, head to in.changiairport.com.

The post In conversation with Mr. Ivan Tan, SVP, Corporate & Marketing Communications for Changi Airport Group appeared first on TravHQ.

Singapore is an amazing destination and surely sits on the bucket list of many. Singapore Tourism Board, came up with a unique travel campaign called ‘Singapore Invites’ giving people a chance to live their Singapore dream. This campaign is about showing an extraordinary glimpse of Singapore, reconnecting and sharing precious memories with families and friends and winning a chance to enjoy the beauty of Singapore with the loved ones.

To win a dream experience in Singapore, the interested participants will have to share the names of the persons they want to invite and how they wish to experience Singapore with them. 25 wishes will come true!

Creating the ‘Singapore Invite’ is simple:

1. Upload a photo depicting the dream experience in Singapore.
2. Share the names of the invitees and why the dream experience is meaningful to the participants within 150 words.
3. Submit the entry on Instagram using the hashtag ‘#SingaporeInvites and ‘#’ followed by the country of residence. Alternatively use this link to submit your entry.

The video below by YourSingapore might give you some inspiration for your entry:

The contest is open globally and the participants can invite a maximum of 3 guests. There is no limitation to the number of entries by the participants. The chances of winning increase by sharing the entries on Facebook and getting more engagement. This contest will end on 6^th December 2015 and the winners will be notified via mail later. 25 lucky winners will receive return air tickets to Singapore, 3-night accommodation and chance to live the dream experience in reality. You can find more details about the campaign here.

Singapore often keeps hosting campaigns to invite more travellers to the country. Recently, Singapore Changi Airport hosted the #UnlockCelebrations contest to join the Indian festive season celebrations.

Do tell us what you think of this new campaign by Singapore.

The post Participate in #SingaporeInvites and win a chance to experience Singapore appeared first on TravHQ.

The Diwali festive season is here and many Indian travel brands are lining up offers and contests for the consumers. Last month, the Singapore Changi Airport joined the celebrations with #UnlockCelebrations contest. With this contest, they are giving away travel goodies to the winners every 2 days and 2 grand prizes. The grand prize is an all-inclusive trip to Singapore for two.

Participating in the contest is pretty simple. Every second day, they put up a different question on the #UnlockCelebrations contest page on their website. The questions are accompanied by a hint to further boost participation. After answering, the participants have to share the same on their Facebook page. The list of winners is displayed on a separate page on the website.

The contest website looks superb with beautiful images and a tiled interface. Through this contest, they are not only getting the attention of more Indian travellers but also highlighting some of the prominent factors that differentiate Changi Airport from most of the other airports around the world. The contest is open for Indian residents only and will be running till the midnight of October 20, 2015.

Changi Airport, one of the largest transportation hubs in Southeast Asia, has often been touted as the best airport in the world. It offers hassle free experience and wide range of entertainment options for the travellers. The airport has won hundreds of awards in years of its operation and it has a reputation for being the benchmark in airport service quality. They are very active on social media platforms and often keep hosting similar contests to promote the destination.

Participate & stand to win a fly-cruise package for two to Singapore! http://t.co/0T0TSLyl0O #UnlockCelebrations pic.twitter.com/lkDKFvv1bn

— Changi Airport (@ChangiAirport) September 21, 2015

You can participate in the #UnlockCelebrations contest on their website here. Don’t forget to like their Facebook page to participate in the contest.

TravHQ Take

The #UnlockCelebrations contest will help Changi Airport strengthen its position as an airport which embraces digital platforms. Singapore replaced Thailand as the top choice for Indian outbound travellers and with the increasing number of travellers this campaign will play a significant role. Many other destinations are trying to lure more Indian travellers by setting up tourist offices in India and hosting various campaigns. This contest will help them get the attention of Indian travellers with the connect to Indian festivals and also help in highlighting the amazing experience Changi Airport offers.

The post Changi Airport joins India in celebrating Diwali with #UnlockCelebrations contest appeared first on TravHQ.