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Aimed at helping firms in the travel industry ride out the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the scheme was introduced in August 2020.
Merchants in the travel industry saw mixed results for the SingapoRediscovers voucher, reported TODAY.
Aimed at helping firms in the travel industry ride out the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the scheme was introduced in August 2020.
It saw the government setting aside $320 million for the vouchers that can be used from 1 December 2020 to end-June 2021 on local tours, staycations and attraction tickets.
The SingapoRediscovers voucher is worth $100 per person and could be redeemed from booking platforms GlobalTix, Changi Recommends, Traveloka, Trip.com and Klook.
And while tour operators appreciate the intent of the scheme to help defray their operational costs, only two of the five operators interviewed by TODAY said the scheme made a significant difference in their business.
Among those that registered positive results was Oriental Travel and Tours, which specialises in local tours.
Stanley Foo, Founder and Managing Partner at Oriental Travel and Tours, shared he did not expect the scheme to have much impact, only to be proven wrong.
“We saw so many orders that our tours were just maxed out,” he said as quoted by TODAY.
Creepy Tales in Singapore, which is a four-hour-long exploration of “spooky” places like cemeteries, emerged as their best-selling tour.
In fact, around 95% of Foo’s tours during the first few months of the scheme’s launch were booked with it.
Now, around 30% to 40% are paid in cash, showing Singaporeans’ willingness to pay for local tours after using up their vouchers, said Foo.
Colin Goh, Let’s Go Cook Singapore’s Head Chef and Experience Manager also shared a similar experience.
Originally catering to expatriates, the company found that locals also want to learn more about the city-state’s food culture.
“Every single month, we were hitting new (revenue) targets for our tours,” said Goh as quoted by TODAY. “It was a breakthrough for us.”
The situation, however, continued to be tough for some operators.
Actxplorer – which organises overseas trips prior to the pandemic and has now shifted to offering local tours – only earned only a fraction of its projections for 2020, even with the introduction of the vouchers.
Jeremy Lee, Business Development Manager of Actxplorer, said the company’s projected revenue for 2020 stood at $5 million, but they only managed to post less than $50,000.
“It’s been tough for us, and we have to look for other forms of income,” said the 30-year-old, who turned to sell sparkling water-makers on the side.
Yeo Ching Khee, Director of adventure travel company X-Trekkers, also took a second job as a safe distancing ambassador since they were not attracting enough customers through the vouchers.
Wilson Chua, Director of sightseeing firm Timesworld Travel and Educational Tours, noted that while the voucher boosted the number of people signing up for their tours, it is still not enough to cover overheads.
The 50-year-old revealed that the company has been dipping into 23 years’ worth of savings and using SkillFuture Singapore’s Absentee Payroll Funding scheme to send their staff for training as well as offset manpower costs.
Meanwhile, the merchants believe that some Singaporeans are not using their vouchers partially due to the complexities involved in redeeming them.
The vouchers could only be redeemed online, which requires Singaporeans to log into their SingPass accounts.
Chua shared that some elderly customers could not even remember their passwords; hence, his staff would spend over 20 minutes sorting through these issues for them.
“If somebody helps them, they will be happy. If not, they’ll just say it is troublesome and that they don’t want to use it,” added Chua as quoted by TODAY.
In a written parliamentary reply on 5 April, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing revealed that while more than 760,000 adult Singaporeans have already redeemed their vouchers at least once by 28 March, another 2.2 million have yet to redeem their vouchers.
For now, the government has no plans to extend the 30 June deadline, he said.
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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this story, email: victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg
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