Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey
SINGAPOREANS are increasingly turning to more exotic and far-flung destinations including Turkey, Kenya and Madagascar to whet their travel appetite.
Following the NATAS Travel Fair which concluded last weekend, a NATAS spokesman said Turkey has “pushed its way back into the top-10 list for the first time since 2009”, taking the 10th place.
In addition to Turkey, destinations such as South Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia also saw strong demand at the fair.
Chan Brothers Travel Singapore marketing and communications manager, Jane Chang, said: “Top destinations remain perennial favourites like China, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
“(However) new exotic destinations including Kenya, Madagascar and Mt Kilimanjaro also gained traction at the event, judging by the enquiries.”
Similarly, Dynasty Travel’s marketing communications director, Alicia Seah, said the demand for exotic destinations have helped boost her company’s sales.
“Overall, our sales revenue increased by about 25 per cent, given that customers are travelling to more far-flung destinations like Turkey and Africa. These would mean each traveller can fork up to S$5,500 (US$4,334) for such a trip,” said Seah.
According to the NATAS spokesman, the top most popular destinations for visitors during the fair were Europe, Japan, China and South Korea.
NATAS welcomed a total of 54,275 visitors over the three-day fair, and estimates the overall sales volume to be approximately S$80 million, lower than the estimated $85-90 million in 2013 (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 25, 2013).
Patricia Auyeong, acting CEO of NATAS, said: “One of the reasons for the dip in sales volume was due to the many pre-NATAS fairs held throughout the month of February, which helped to alleviate some of the local pent-up demand for travel.”
