<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Feb 28, 2009
TOURISM DEPARTURES
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Huge crowds look for bargains
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Thousands visit Natas fair as the thirst for travel remains strong </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Lim Wei Chean
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As the Natas fair opened yesterday, the queue to get in stretched all the way across the Singapore Expo, up to the doors leading to the MRT station. Travel agents are doing well despite the downturn, with Singaporeans refusing to give up holidays - though more are opting for cheaper getaways in the region over long-haul trips. -- ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->TENS of millions of dollars worth of travel packages have been sold over the past few weekends, but the Singaporean thirst for travel has hardly been slaked.
Hours before the doors opened yesterday to the grand-daddy of travel events here, the Natas fair, the line of people willing to pay $3 to get into it stretched close to 400m.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>REASON TO ROAM
'There is nothing much to do here. So my husband and I head overseas at least two to three times a year.'
Businesswoman Cheong Keok Soon, 54
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Demand to get away is so hot that the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore's chief executive officer Robert Khoo expects 60,000 people to have turned up for the fair, held at the Singapore Expo, by the time all is said and done tomorrow evening.
That is higher than last year's total of 57,000.
Asked for a sales estimate, Mr Khoo put it at $50 million, the same as last year's fair.
Add that to the more than $20 million raked in by other fairs over the past two weekends - the biggest of which were held by Chan Brothers Travel and SA Tours - and the size of Singaporeans' appetite for travel becomes clear.
Businesswoman Cheong Keok Soon, 54, summed up the reasons for this wanderlust thus: 'There is nothing much to do here. So my husband and I head overseas at least two to three times a year.'
So travel they must, but in keeping with the times, many of those among the more than 10,000 who showed up yesterday were looking to snap up a good bargain for a short trip in the region, as opposed to past fairs, where long-haul trips worth tens of thousands were as easily sold as weekend getaways to Bangkok.
Said engineer Foo Ce Jie, 27: 'This year, I am trying to keep my travelling expenditure to $1,000 to $2,000.'
Singaporeans were not the only ones at the fair, though.
Australian Malar Norris was among those at the head of the queue.
The 60-year-old retiree was in Singapore to visit her mother and paid her first visit to the fair.
She said: 'I have heard so much about it from my friends that I decided to come today to check it out.'
She was looking to get a good package to Vietnam for herself and her husband, who is flying in from Sydney to join her in Singapore next month.
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan, who was the guest of honour at the event's opening ceremony, congratulated the industry for doing well despite the economic downturn.
He urged the travel agents present to hold on to their employees - the sector has an 8,000-strong workforce - as they are the people who possess the knowledge which will stand the company in good stead when good times return.
Training in down times is key, he said, and pointed to schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) and the $100-million Go the Extra Mile Plus programme as those which travel agents can tap on.
Some firms have heeded the message.
Chan Brothers' executive director Chan Guat Cheng said the agency is sending all its 200 employees for training in different batches.
She said: 'In the last few years, we were too busy, but now, we can send them for training to prepare for better times.' [email protected]
TOURISM DEPARTURES
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Huge crowds look for bargains
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Thousands visit Natas fair as the thirst for travel remains strong </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Lim Wei Chean
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
As the Natas fair opened yesterday, the queue to get in stretched all the way across the Singapore Expo, up to the doors leading to the MRT station. Travel agents are doing well despite the downturn, with Singaporeans refusing to give up holidays - though more are opting for cheaper getaways in the region over long-haul trips. -- ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->TENS of millions of dollars worth of travel packages have been sold over the past few weekends, but the Singaporean thirst for travel has hardly been slaked.
Hours before the doors opened yesterday to the grand-daddy of travel events here, the Natas fair, the line of people willing to pay $3 to get into it stretched close to 400m.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>REASON TO ROAM
'There is nothing much to do here. So my husband and I head overseas at least two to three times a year.'
Businesswoman Cheong Keok Soon, 54
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Demand to get away is so hot that the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore's chief executive officer Robert Khoo expects 60,000 people to have turned up for the fair, held at the Singapore Expo, by the time all is said and done tomorrow evening.
That is higher than last year's total of 57,000.
Asked for a sales estimate, Mr Khoo put it at $50 million, the same as last year's fair.
Add that to the more than $20 million raked in by other fairs over the past two weekends - the biggest of which were held by Chan Brothers Travel and SA Tours - and the size of Singaporeans' appetite for travel becomes clear.
Businesswoman Cheong Keok Soon, 54, summed up the reasons for this wanderlust thus: 'There is nothing much to do here. So my husband and I head overseas at least two to three times a year.'
So travel they must, but in keeping with the times, many of those among the more than 10,000 who showed up yesterday were looking to snap up a good bargain for a short trip in the region, as opposed to past fairs, where long-haul trips worth tens of thousands were as easily sold as weekend getaways to Bangkok.
Said engineer Foo Ce Jie, 27: 'This year, I am trying to keep my travelling expenditure to $1,000 to $2,000.'
Singaporeans were not the only ones at the fair, though.
Australian Malar Norris was among those at the head of the queue.
The 60-year-old retiree was in Singapore to visit her mother and paid her first visit to the fair.
She said: 'I have heard so much about it from my friends that I decided to come today to check it out.'
She was looking to get a good package to Vietnam for herself and her husband, who is flying in from Sydney to join her in Singapore next month.
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan, who was the guest of honour at the event's opening ceremony, congratulated the industry for doing well despite the economic downturn.
He urged the travel agents present to hold on to their employees - the sector has an 8,000-strong workforce - as they are the people who possess the knowledge which will stand the company in good stead when good times return.
Training in down times is key, he said, and pointed to schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) and the $100-million Go the Extra Mile Plus programme as those which travel agents can tap on.
Some firms have heeded the message.
Chan Brothers' executive director Chan Guat Cheng said the agency is sending all its 200 employees for training in different batches.
She said: 'In the last few years, we were too busy, but now, we can send them for training to prepare for better times.' [email protected]
