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The Singapore Tourism Board (STB)
today applauded the launch of "The Original Singapore Walks" and "War Trails"
by home-grown company, Journeys Pte Ltd. These innovative walks and coach tours aim to showcase the lesser
known but no less fascinating aspects of Singapore's multicultural heritage,
some of which may even be new to many locals.
Similar to the London Walks in the United Kingdom, these walks will enable
visitors to discover Singapore's natural, cultural and historical sites and
historic heritage. The walks are conducted by licensed Tourists Guides, who
will offer in-depth knowledge and share insightful perspectives on historic
sites such as Chinatown, Little India, Kampong Glam, Fort Canning and the
Singapore River.
Journeys' Director, Mr Jeyathurai said: "Journeys is dedicated to revealing to
the world the depth of Singapore's rich heritage and colourful history. We
intend to excite people about Singapore and to do it through innovative ways
such as 'The Original Singapore Walks'."
Riding on this wave of creativity and innovation exemplified by Journeys' new
product, the STB announced two changes that will encourage creativity, entrepreneurship and vibrancy within the Tourist Guide sector to promote the
development of exciting and memorable tourism experiences for visitors.
The first is the introduction of a Specialised Guide
license to encourage qualified and passionate professionals to conduct tours in areas where they
enjoy expert domain knowledge. These areas will include architecture, the
arts, food, heritage and even nature. To facilitate this, STB will put in place a
streamlined assessment system that will essentially require aspiring Specialised Tourist Guides to submit their proposed itinerary and conduct a
preview tour before they can be licensed.
In the second change, STB has reviewed the Travel Agents Act and
Regulations to allow all licensed Tourist Guides (including Specialised
Guides) to provide innovative tours and to work directly with transport owners to offer one mode of land transportation for visitors, which they were
not allowed to do so previously. Presently, Tourist Guides are only allowed to
work with travel agents or to establish their own travel agent operations in
order to provide tours. As travel agents, Tourist Guides will be subjected to
onerous legislative requirements such as putting up a minimum paid-up capital of S$100,000. With this change, Tourist Guides will now have greater
flexibility in developing their business models.
Tourist Guides will now be able to offer an antique tour or a Peranakan
heritage tour as walking tours on their own or in collaboration with a coach
operator directly. Through this liberalisation effort, STB expects Tourist
Guides to be more forthcoming in providing a wider spectrum of tour products
and initiatives.
Commenting on the new initiatives, Mr Lim Neo Chian, Deputy Chairman and
Chief Executive of STB said:
"In order to maintain our position as a choice destination for tourists, we have
to constantly create new and exciting tourism products and programmes so
that tourists will never have a dull moment in Singapore. The new initiatives
will help to facilitate growth as more Tourist Guides and enterprising individuals come forth with more creative ideas and offerings. The introduction
of these initiatives is timely as visitor arrivals are already starting to show
signs of improvement."
Mr Lim added: "The introduction of the Specialised Guide category and
allowing licensed Tourist Guides to work with land transport owners to provide tours coupled with a mode of land transportation will reap long term
benefits for the local tourism industry as it will encourage greater creativity. It
also presents an array of opportunities for budding entrepreneurs to propose
and develop niche tourism products. For the tourism industry to develop, we
have to move away from the homogenous environment that we are used to and explore various opportunities and ideas. Journeys Pte Ltd is an excellent
example of a travel agent who strives to be different. We hope that more
Singaporeans will follow in their footsteps in the coming months."
STB hopes that the new initiatives will create a buzz and inject more vitality as
well as attract more qualified individuals with a great passion for tourism to
join the industry. Interested individuals with the relevant professional
qualification or working experience may be licensed by the STB to provide
guiding services. |
