Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore to create some 3,000 jobs

SINGAPORE: Singapore's second cruise terminal, the Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore, is expected to generate some 3,000 jobs in the tourism sector when it's fully operational.

The terminal is operated by SATS-Creuers Cruise Services. This addition and the Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront are expected to grow the leisure cruise sector in Singapore.

Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said that cruise passenger numbers are expected to hit 1.5 million in three to five years.

Passenger numbers reached close to one million last year.

Costing about S$500 million, the 28,000 square metres Marina Bay Cruise Centre can handle about 6,800 passengers at any one time.

The arrival and departure halls will comprise 80 check-in counters and up to 40 immigration counters. Also about six shops are expected to be set up which include food and beverage and convenience stores.

Other facilities include 25 coach bays, 327 carpark lots and convenient road access with provisions made for future walkway linkages to MRT stations, the waterfront promenade and the park.

The cruise centre at Marina South will double Singapore's berthing capacity and will cater to the world's largest cruise ships.

Despite the drop in cruise passenger numbers in the last two years, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is confident of a more buoyant outlook.

Ms Aw Kah Peng, chief executive of the STB, said: "Our numbers in terms of throughput has fallen and it's partly because the industry here is restructuring. After the two IRs opened, many of the gaming ships didn't make sense anymore. So for them, it made sense for them not to continue.

"But I think the structural adjustment is almost at the tail end. Now we are seeing more interest from cruise ships that are not gaming ships."

She also added that more cruise liners are showing interest in Asia mainly because the market is doing well here. For example, Asia accounts for close to 20 per cent of the global outbound travel.

The terminal is also expected to have spillover benefits in the economy.

Second Minister for Trade and Industry and Home Affairs and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, S Iswaran, said: "All the supporting services for the cruise ships and also the onshore tourism services will be big factors. The hotels also stand to benefit to the extent that we become a turnaround cruise spot. People come to Singapore in order to board their cruise ship or to disembark in Singapore before going home which means the fly cruise component is quite important and for that we're also quite well positioned because of our air connectivity."

The cruise-fly packages is aimed at making it more seamless for passengers to connect to the airport and will be made available from May 26, facilitated by the terminal's access to the airport. Currently it will only service Silkair, Singapore Airlines and Qantas passengers.

The Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas will be the largest ship to make its way here on 26 May, paving the way for larger cruise liners to dock in Singapore and Asia.

The ship has a capacity of 3,840 passengers and 1,176 crew.

Currently, the terminal is only open to cruise liners, passengers and authorised personnel and will only open its doors to the public in the second half of this year.

SATS-Creuers Cruise Services which operates the terminal said that one of the challenges when constructing the facility was to tackle the low tides. As such, cages were built to aid the crew to load or unload baggage more effectively.

Singapore expects up to 10% rise in 2012 visitor arrivals

SINGAPORE : Singapore hopes to attract up to 10 per cent more visitors this year.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has projected visitor arrivals to be between 13.5 and 14.5 million this year, an increase of up to 10 per cent from 2011.

The growth will be slower than the 13.8 per cent pace achieved in 2011.

STB also projected tourism receipts to reach S$23 billion to S$24 billion this year, an increase of up to 8 per cent from last year.

Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran revealed the figures at the annual Tourism Industry Conference on Friday.

It was held at the MAX Atria @ Singapore Expo and attended by more than 800 industry partners.

Singapore's tourism industry has done well in the past two years, but STB wants to focus on growing Singapore's share of the tourism pie by increasing the amount of money visitors spend while in Singapore.

From a low of S$12.6 billion in 2009, tourism receipts have more than doubled to S$22.2 billion in 2011.

The government will pump S$640 million to seed new tourism projects over five years.

Three new areas of growth have also been identified.

One area is to build up the cruise tourism, starting with the opening of the new International Cruise Terminal later this year.

Aw Kah Peng, CEO of Singapore Tourism Board, said: "We think there's a lot of untapped potential in cruising. Southeast Asia as a whole region is really interesting for cruising because of the many islands that form the archipelago of Indonesia, as well as Philippines and the long wonderful coastlines of our neighbours like Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. We think that Southeast Asia can be the next Mediterranean when it comes to cruising."

She added: "We have invested in the international cruise terminal to essentially double our berthing capacity. We believe infrastructure is really just a first step. Cruise lines will come to Singapore firstly because the destination is interesting and exciting, and secondly because the right infrastructure is here to support them in order for them to deliver experiences to their passengers."

The government said another area for good growth potential is the arts and entertainment sector. So in the next phase of development, it is looking forward to co-creating and anchoring more signature content such as arts and music festivals to attract more visitors to Singapore.

A third area of growth is the travel agent industry. This means local travel agents with established outbound businesses will be given more help to grow inbound traffic.

STB also wants to attract global companies to set up innovative inbound operations in Singapore that draw traffic into Singapore and the region.

The two integrated resorts have also contributed to increased visitor arrivals. And to help casino operators extend their international reach, Singapore's Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) awarded junket licences to two Malaysian operators on Thursday.

Twelve applications were rejected.

Mr Iswaran said: "That should give all of us a measure of the way CRA intends to go about this process. In general, if there is any indication of non-compliance or any other kinds of potential problems, clearly the persons or entity will not be eligible for the licence.

"In addition, it is a one-year licence and there are several safeguards built into it and there will be ongoing monitoring."

And to help companies deal with the challenging domestic environment, the government will channel S$265 million to help companies increase their capabilities and workers' productivity.

STB will build on the Workforce Development Agency's and the Employment and Employability Institute's (e2i) basic tourism-related training to support more advanced, specialist training in key areas like conference management and attractions operations.

The government is also exploring the development of tourism-related scholarships to groom the next generation of industry captains and talent from the existing pool of middle managers and entry-level workers.