prime news 쐽 THE STRAITS TIMES SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 2009 PAGE A14

TOURISM DEPARTURES

Huge
crowds
As the Natas fair
opened yesterday, the
queue to get in
stretched all the way
across the Singapore
look for
bargains
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
Thousands visit Natas
over long-haul trips.
ST PHOTO:
LIM WUI LIANG
fair as the thirst for
travel remains strong
BY LIM WEI CHEAN
TENS of millions of dollars worth of travel packag-
es 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.
Demand to get away is so hot that the National
Association of Travel Agents Singapore’s chief exec-
utive officer Robert Khoo expects 60,000 people to
have turned up for the fair, held at the Singapore Ex-
po, 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 big-
gest of which were held by Chan Brothers Travel
and SA Tours – and the size of Singaporeans’ appe-
tite 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 yester-
쏆 day were looking to
snap up a good bargain
REASON TO ROAM for a short trip in the
region, as opposed to
“There is nothing past fairs, where
long-haul trips worth
much to do here. tens of thousands
So my husband were as easily sold as
weekend getaways to
and I head Bangkok.
overseas at least Said engineer Foo
Ce Jie, 27: “This year,
two to three I am trying to keep my
times a year.” travelling expenditure
to $1,000 to $2,000.”
Businesswoman Cheong Singaporeans were
Keok Soon, 54 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 vis-
it 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 Viet-
nam 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, congrat-
ulated the industry for doing well despite the eco-
nomic 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 point-
ed to schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrad-
ing and Resilience (Spur) and the $100-million Go
the Extra Mile Plus programme as those which trav-
el 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 employ-
ees 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 pre-
pare for better times.”
weichean@sph.com.sg