Photo credit: Dynasty Travel
The 50th edition of the NATAS travel fair held last weekend at the Singapore Expo witnessed a record turnout of close to 111,000 visitors, but the spike in visitorship translated to mixed performance for participating agents.
Dynasty Travel, one of some 20 agencies returning from a rival fair, raked in more than S$10 million (US$7 million) in sales, a 20 per cent increase from last year’s fair.
The agency’s spokesperson Alicia Seah added that Europe came up tops as the most popular destination for Singaporeans, with the sector accounting for 30 per cent of overall sales revenue for the leisure market.
Seah believes that the travel culture is strongly embedded among Singaporeans, who will “take to the skies whenever possible”.
Not all agencies are seeing brisk business at the fair though. Famous World Tours outbound manager Tarasuraman Tharani told TTG Asia that the firm had a “challenging year (at the fair) with fewer enquiries” and that booking volume was not up to their expectations.
Welcoming the doubling of attendance at this year’s fair, Devinder Ohri, president of NATAS, also recognised the challenges ahead in global travel and urges travel agents “to adapt to thrive in this ever-changing landscape”.
