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Singapore’s Changi Airport, routinely voted the best in the world and a key part of the city-state’s psyche, is reinventing itself for the Covid era and beyond.
In an attempt to keep people engaged until life returns to normal, it offers glamping for families at Jewel, the nature-themed entertainment complex open to the public, as well as a host of Christmas canopy tour deals. park that involve topiary walks and jumps in an aerial network, to seasonal menus.
With an eye to the future, parts of the nearby Singapore Expo site are being transformed into a giant construction site as 840 meeting and guest rooms are built in a short time – part of Connect @ Changi, a facility expanding to host foreign business visitors. as part of a bubble initiative.
“There are more people, especially on the weekends,” said Jasmine Hoon, a waitress at Paris Baguette, a cafe in Jewel that sells fancy cakes and wrappers. “Sales have increased and vaccines are also giving people hope.”
Nearby, children are beginning to feel at home in large white tents erected as part of the airport’s Glampcations in the Clouds initiative. People can spend the night in the middle of the vegetation and wake up to the sound of water splashing from the largest indoor waterfall in the world. Prices start from S $ 320 ($ 240) and the slot machines have been fully booked for weeks.
Holiday camping and dinner offerings may be temporary measures, but they are all part of efforts to stimulate activity in Changi, whose importance to the small city-state is hard to underestimate. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was on the verge of tears when he promised Parliament in September that “Changi will prosper again,” citing his inauguration in 1981 as a moment of immense national pride.
Because international visitors are a facilitator of other economic activities on the island, including food and beverage, retail, and medical care, it is difficult to estimate the extent to which the border closures have hampered Singapore’s economy. According to government figures, aviation alone accounts for about 3% of gross domestic product, and tourism contributes another 4%.
At dawn in 2021, Singapore’s success with Covid allows it to open up for business trips tailored to the life of the virus era, including convincing the World Economic Forum to relocate its annual jet-set meeting from Davos. While the return to pre-virus traffic is still a long way off, the green shoots are a welcome sign for a place synonymous with global commerce and travel.
“If you think about Singapore’s role as a regional hub and the general idea of connectivity and logistics facilitation, then Changi is quite critical,” said Selena Ling, director of research and treasury strategy at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
Changi Airport, which is typically Asia’s third-busiest international traffic hub, has, like all aviation hubs, experienced its fair share of problems. The number of passengers fell to 24,500 in May, only 0.4% from what they were 12 months earlier. They rebounded to 111,000 in November, but that’s still below 98% at 2019 levels.
The 13-square-kilometer (five-square-mile) airport at Singapore’s easternmost point is operating two of its four terminals and has halted construction on a fifth for at least two years. Some retail stores in public and transit areas remain closed due to lack of foot traffic.
There have been other setbacks as well. A long-awaited air travel bubble with Hong Kong that would have bypassed quarantine was delayed after a spike in cases in Hong Kong. Singapore Airlines Ltd. has been hit harder than some regional rivals because it has no domestic market to tap into. The airline reported its biggest quarterly loss in September and is cutting about a quarter of staff in anticipation that it will still operate about 20% of its capacity by the end of this month.
After contracting 5.8% in 2020, the economy could expand between 4% and 6% this year, according to government estimates. However, critical industries like aviation may take longer to recover, said Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
So far, about S $ 100 billion in stimulus has been pledged to prop up consumers and businesses, and more has been pledged in the annual budget due later this year. About half are supported by funds from the nation’s reserves that are generally off limits, a striking example of how unprecedented the recession has been.
But with vaccines on the way, Singapore administered its first puncture last week, hopes are rising.
In December, Singapore announced a new business travel route that will allow people from anywhere to come without quarantine for short stays. They will have to reside at Connnect @ Changi, which upon completion in mid-2021 will have more than 1,300 rooms and around 340 meeting rooms, and will be subject to numerous Covid tests, including upon arrival and on days three, five, seven. and 11.
“Ideally, you would like people to move freely, do what they want, and spend where they want,” but this is a “good alternative option” as we try to eradicate the virus, Temasek Holdings Pte Senior said Managing Director Alan Thompson. “This is an attempt to begin to open up and revitalize the air travel and hospitality sectors in Singapore.” The state investment firm, along with The Ascott Ltd. and Sheares Healthcare Group, is supporting the facility.
And while the virus continues to ravage parts of Europe and the United States, reopening negotiations continue with other countries. Leisure travel without quarantine has already opened from New Zealand, Brunei, Australia, Vietnam, Taiwan and China, and there are bilateral agreements with Japan, South Korea and Germany that make things easier for business travelers.
Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung, in a Facebook post last month, compared the efforts to a “national resilience project.”
“We will ensure that Singapore continues to hum even with Covid-19,” he said. “We are all ready to rise again.”
(This story was posted from a cable agency feed with no text changes. Only the title has been changed.)
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