Monday, 12th July 2004 (4574 views)

Special offers, discounts and marketing offers seem to paying off, as visitors to Singapore reportedly splurged more than $85 million at the shops last month.

According to goods and services tax (GST) refund agency Global Refund Singapore, the top buys during June were, jewellery, watches and womenswear. Tourist shoppers boosted total GST refunds by 135 per cent over June last year and sales were up an estimated 80 per cent.

This year, the Singapore Tourism Board targeted tourist shoppers with its Great Singapore Sale offers, special tour packages including air fare, accommodation, shopping, spa discounts, and food and beverage offers, The Straits Times reports.

The STB held press conferences in Jakarta and Medan in May, and ran advertisements in many of Indonesia's major daily newspapers. Surveys have shown that the biggest spending visitors to Singapore hail from Indonesia, India and Japan. The STB reports that around half of what visitors spend in Singapore goes on shopping.

Shoppers from 13 countries, including Vietnam, New Zealand and Thailand were also targeted as part of the campaign. 43,000 packages have been sold so far, 3,000 short of the target set by the STB.

This year's sale, the 11th to be held, is running for eight weeks, a fortnight longer than usual, and ends on July 25.

 

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