The Singapore Rugby Union (SRU) and JTB have inked a 12-month partnership to promote rugby tourism to Japan and Singapore.
The two entities will cooperate to achieve goals such as encouraging travel from South-east Asia to Japan during the Rugby World Cup Japan 2019, and from Japan to Singapore for the HSBC Singapore Rugby Sevens next year.
This will see the size of JTB’s delegation at the HSBC Singapore Rugby Sevens 2019 increase by three to fourfold from this year’s three, said Shinya Kurosawa, president and CEO of JTB.
JTB will promote 12 Rugby World Cup tour packages to Singaporeans that include two match tickets and two nights’ accommodation in Japan. Kurosawa states that rugby fans following the tournament can spend up to 47 days in Japan, making it a “big opportunity” to generate tourism dollars.
“The surrounding prefectures in Japan are using the Rugby World Cup to promote inbound tourism,” he shared.
These packages will be launched at the NATAS Holidays 2018 Fair taking place this weekend in Singapore.
In return, JTB will be able to offer SRU the outreach given its “strong network”, explained Terence Khoo, president of SRU.
He added that instead of competing with the prolific Hong Kong Sevens, the Singapore tournament will continue to develop its unique selling point as a “sports and family event“.
