With the Singapore-Riau Safe Travel Bubble now underway and travel enquiries for destination Bintan spiking, Bintan Resorts has brought its travel trade partners in Singapore together for a forum this afternoon to address procedural concerns as well as present critical destination information to aid their sales efforts.
The in-person event was attended by 49 registered trade members – a figure limited by safe distancing requirements. Trade partners who were unable to attend the event today can expect more of similar engagements by Bintan Resorts in the coming weeks and months, as the destination marketer and master developer of tourism infrastructure in the Indonesian island ramps up trade and consumer communications.
Speaking to TTG Asia, Abdul Wahab, group general manager of Bintan Resorts, said his team would plan for fam trips soon for travel trade partners, event organisers, trade journalists and travel bloggers to showcase Bintan’s readiness for travellers to return, and has started work on reviving some of the destination’s popular sporting events.
“I think we can do the minimum safely – that is to bring back a few sports events such as triathlons and marathons, which can be conducted within the Lagoi area,” he shared.
Abdul Wahab believes Bintan is ready to welcome both holidaymakers and business groups.
“There are 2,000 hotel rooms (based on permitted 50 per cent operating capacity across seven hotels that have remained opened, out of 17 in total) in operation now within the Lagoi travel bubble as well as four signature golf courses and so many other tourism facilities, all of which are spread over an area that is 20 times larger than Singapore’s Sentosa resort island. There is plenty of activities for travellers looking to stay in Bintan for three or four nights,” he said.
Bintan hotels, resorts and venues are also authorised to host events of up to 300 pax in a single area with safe measures in place.
However, Abdul Wahab also tempered recovery expectations, as the Singapore-Riau Safe Travel Bubble is still a unilateral arrangement.
“We have yet to receive a written directive from Singapore authorities on how travellers from Bintan will return to Singapore. We can only be truly happy when Singapore announces reciprocal quarantine-free arrivals from Bintan,” he explained.
While the Singapore-Riau Safe Travel Bubble allows travellers from Singapore to enter Bintan without quarantine, travellers returning to Singapore will need to fulfil a seven-day isolation at home or a facility at their own expense.
“Compulsory quarantine will continue to be a major obstacle to Bintan’s tourism recovery, so we are hoping hard that the Singapore authorities can agree on a Vaccinated Travel Lane with Bintan, just like the ongoing arrangement with Jakarta which is very convenient and successful,” he added.
Similar optimism is seen among HR and hiring managers, with 45 per cent of such respondents expecting new headcount in 2022 – levels not seen since pre-pandemic.
A detailed copy of the ACI Report 2022 can be 
India’s tourism and hospitality businesses are left high and dry by the central government’s budget for 2022-2023, which has neglected their requests for industry status, abolishment of tax collection at source (TCS) on outbound travel, and tax concessions.
The only silver lining in a largely gloomy budget for the country’s battered tourism and hospitality industry is an extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) until 2023, with an additional 500 billion rupees (US$6.7 billion) dedicated to hospitality and allied businesses.
Launched as a special scheme in view of the Covid-19 crisis, ECLGS provides 100 per cent guarantee coverage to banks and non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) to enable them to extend emergency credit facilities to enterprises so that their additional working capital requirements are fulfilled.
KB Kachru, vice president, Hotel Association of India (HAI), told TTG Asia that the distressed industry had expected more assistance from the government.
“The budget offered a good opportunity to the government to roll out policy changes, like announcing industry status for the sector,” the veteran hotelier said.
Jyoti Mayal, president of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), expressed his disappointment: “We were expecting the government to announce some measures to uplift the mood of travel trade stakeholders. No announcement was made to roll back TCS, which has made Indian travel agents less competitive in the international market. We were also expecting industry status for the tourism sector.”
However, one stakeholder has jumped to the defence of budget 2022-2023.
Naveen Kundu, managing director, EbixCash Travel Services – India, South East Asia & Middle East, explained: “We cannot just view this budget from the lens of the tourism sector. As an overall budget, there are both direct and indirect benefits to the sector.
“The direct benefit is in form of the ECGLS extension with an additional (financial injection). It is a great step in terms of creating and restructuring loans for the hospitality sector.”
Kundu added that the government’s plans to invest in various infrastructure projects, such as construction of roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics, will help “domestic and inbound tourism to grow”.
“Just imagine the amount of capital that will flow into the capital goods industry and the manufacturing industry. Such investments in new projects will also fuel the demand for travel,” he said.
Kundu said the government could also consider declaring 2022 as a Visit India year, offering free visas to inbound tourists.