Singapore embraces ‘Golden Week’ in bid to attract cashed-up Chinese retail tourists
An estimated 589 million Chinese will travel overseas and domestically for leisure during the holiday period
Singapore now has its own shopping version of Golden Week that could help woo Chinese tourists travelling abroad during a week-long national holiday in China.
Brands from Estee Lauder to Nike to Samsonite are offering discounts in the city state, coinciding with China’s National Day public holidays. The promotions are aimed at grabbing a slice of the more than half a billion Chinese who are expected to travel domestically and overseas for the annual holiday that started on October 1.
Chinese visitors remain very important to the retail industry
Singapore is trying to revive its flagging retail industry, where sales excluding motor vehicles have fallen in 10 of the past 12 months. During the promotion period, malls such as those owned by Southeast Asia’s biggest developer CapitaLand and Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai Properties will offer lucky draws and free limousine rides to users of UnionPay, China’s card-payment equivalent of Visa and MasterCard.
“Chinese visitors remain very important to the retail industry,” said R. Dhinakaran, chairman of the Singapore Retail Association, an industry group that’s organising Singapore Golden Week with China UnionPay. The event is intended to “heighten the appeal of Singapore” for local and foreign users of the card, he said in an email.
An estimated 589 million Chinese will travel overseas and domestically for leisure during the holiday period, according to a report by the China Tourism Academy. About 135 million of them had travelled out of mainland China in the 12 months through June 30. Singapore was No.7 on the list of the top destinations, lagging behind countries including Thailand, South Korea and Japan.
Singapore’s newly created promotion will face competition. It will need to contend with the Korea Grand Sale, which takes place the entire month of October. South Korea’s capital Seoul is the No.1 destination for tourists on group and self-guided tours during China’s Golden Week, according to the largest Chinese travel website Ctrip.com International.