THE STRING of natural disasters in New Zealand, Australia and Japan, coupled with unrest in the Middle East, put a dampener on Singapore outbound travel in the first half of 2011.
Expectations were high among local travel agents that bookings would increase in 2011, due to the relative buoyancy of 2010. However, agents whom TTG Asia e-daily recently spoke to reported a 10 to 40 per cent decline in bookings over the first six months of 2011, compared to the same period last year.
Stella Chow, manager, Outbound Tours, Hong Thai Travel Services, said: “Singaporeans were hit by an avalanche of uncertainty in the first six months of 2011, and as a result, many decided to scrap their travel plans.”
Business in April and May, traditionally busy months for the travel trade, was “sluggish and slow”, according to Mike Chan, managing director, Global Holidays.
Alicia Seah, senior vice president (marketing & PR), CTC Travel, added: “Bookings for the June holiday period were a huge disappointment.”
It is not all doom and gloom though, as pointed out by Robin Yap, managing director, Insight Vacations. “We are seeing a remarkable surge in bookings out of Singapore to Europe because of the weakening euro,” he said.
Yap said the strengthening Singapore dollar was also stimulating travel to the US, albeit from a small base.
