SINGAPORE (May 29): Companies that rely on Singapore’s tourism industry have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and are facing all sorts of challenges at this moment, such as cash flow disruption, slow down in sales, outlet closures and more.
According to information services company Experian, the overall business outlook among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is increasingly negative, with both external and domestic facing sectors impacted by disruptions to global supply chains and social distancing measures.
The Edge Singapore spoke to Quek Choon Yang, chief technology officer for STB who agreed that businesses that rely on tourism are “badly affected”. As it is, STB release the visitor arrival data for March, and it was found that the Covid-19 pandemic has cause a 84.7% y-o-y fall in visitor arrival.
Inevitably, some businesses were forced to shut down due to the severe economic impact and many are left jobless.
But STB ensures that it is trying its best to help the industry. “We've done what we can to help to maybe soften the blow a little bit to make sure that whatever assistance that is possible to be given to them,” says Quek.
“But our priorities are actually to make sure that we are saving all of the good jobs, as many as we can, sustaining some of the core capabilities that we want to continue to have and then actually building on new ones,” he adds.
As it is, the Singapore government has already extended its hands to give support to the industry by allocating budgets – Unity, Resilience and Solidarity budgets. These three budgets total almost $60 billion, and have been especially impactful in protecting businesses within the hospitality, food and beverage, as well as wholesale sectors.
Thankfully, the government’s support initiatives have shown to have an immediate positive impact on local SMEs. Experian’s survey found that 93% of SMEs found the initiatives helped to retain their employees, while 83% were thankful for the improvement in cash flow and 81% thought the initiatives were useful to defray their business operational costs.
However, these are just temporary and immediate measures for businesses. In order for these businesses to keep afloat beyond these initiatives, they would have to adapt to the change in business environment.
“If you look at what is happening, it is quite clear that some of the ways that we have been doing business needs to change,” says STB’s Quek, as he explains that the way people travel has forever changed after the September 11 incident.
“I think a post-Covid world, visitors who travel will be a lot more sensitised to physical hygiene, physical contact, or even proximity to other people. So we have to adapt and look at how our businesses can cope in this kind of new climate,” he adds.
Digital transformation
With Covid-19 changing the tourism landscape, businesses involved in the industry have to keep up to stay relevant. Technology and digitalisation have been identified as the key transformation points for tourism businesses to continue engaging their customers amid this critical period, while fortifying their business models.
“Beyond technology and financial support, we are trying to get our tourism industry to build tech capabilities to support the recovery effort. Overall, I think it is about trying to build new experiences, help businesses build new processes and new products to prepare for the new normal after the Covid pandemic,” says Quek.
And now is the best time for businesses to digitalise.
To help tourism businesses build resilience during this time and put themselves in the best position for recovery, STB has developed Learn, Test, Build, a three-step framework for digital transformation supported by various initiatives that industry players can leverage.
The first step, Learn, helps businesses understand their current state of transformation. Under this step, STB will be launching the Tourism Transformation Index (TXI) in 2Q2020. It is a self-diagnostic tool for companies to assess their strengths, identify areas of opportunity and provide recommendations on next steps to take in their digital transformation journey. This will be complemented by formal instruction through the STB Tech College.
After which, the second step is Test, where STB provides tourism businesses platforms to test out their new ideas. For this, STB is launching the ThreeHouse innovation space. The ThreeHouse will be located on STB’s premises for companies to collaborate and test new ideas and solutions. This is slated to open later in the year.
STB has also already launched the second cohort of startups in the Singapore Tourism Accelerator on Mar 30 and is currently ongoing, with participants joining the Singapore Tourism Accelerator via digital participation.
And finally, the third step – Build – allows businesses to tap into shared data and content via a suite of smart services created by STB to drive innovation and guide business decisions. This includes the Singapore Tourism Analytics Network (Stan), which is being made available to the industry for the first time. Through Stan, industry stakeholders can access updated tourism statistics, and exchange data – all of which will prove useful as they start to plan for recovery.
So far, Quek says the response for this three-step framework has been fantastic. “There's been a lot of interest from stakeholders and they are talking to each of our different teams to learn more about this and try to figure out how can we actually get started and put a plan together. So we are very excited by this. I think, since launching, we have some 200 people talk to us about this already.”
Apart from that, STB has also introduced online training for businesses in the tourism sector to help upskill workers.
On this front, STB Marketing College, a learning and development programme tailored for marketing professionals in the travel and tourism industry by STB, has partnered key digital players such as Facebook, Google and LinkedIn to develop web-based training for the tourism industry.
Facebook Singapore, for example, has produced a webinar series that targets businesses in the travel, hospitality, retail, and BTMICE sectors. In this series, experts will share business insights and best practices to engage customers and help businesses adapt during these challenging times.
