THE Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is setting aside S$15 million (US$11.9 million) under a new Association Development Fund (ADF) to help associations capture higher value business opportunities, develop capabilities and create unique experiences in their precincts.
Unveiling this during the Tourism Industry Conference 2014 this morning, second minister for trade and industry, S Iswaran, said: “We must focus on concepts and creating distinctive software that can maximise the value we derive from existing tourism hardware and differentiate Singapore from regional competition.”
Highlighting the importance of collaboration among stakeholders, he said: “The rising external competition, the need for innovative ideas and solutions and the growing capability of industry players all mean that our tourism industry is at a stage where interdependence is a key feature.”
According to STB’s assistant chief executive, Yap Chin Siang, this fund is part of the S$905 million Tourism Development Fund that was established in 2005 (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 23, 2012).
Yap said: “One of the key areas for (associations) to address is how to curate more distinctive experiences and to tell their precinct’s stories to visitors…This could be enhanced through training classes or seminars for the association members with the help of the fund.”
STB currently supports the Orchard Road Business Association, Chinatown Business Association and the Little India Shopkeepers and Heritage Association, among others.
While STB already dishes out industry assistance in various grants, Yap pointed that this fund is a first that targets association industry capability.
Howard Lim, chairman of the Society of Tourist Guides Singapore, said such funds will especially benefit non-governmental organisations associations like his. “We are a non-profit group and we rely mostly on volunteers so it is difficult to run everything efficiently from our programmes to bidding for conferences.”
Lim said that due to limited funds, there is only one full-time employee in the 500-member association. With this new grant, when approved by STB, Lim said he may use it to engage a full-time secretariat to support them better.
Applications for the ADF are now open and will close in March 2016.
