Singapore to host Asian tourism festival

LAS VEGAS—Singapore will host a major travel and tourism festival in October to showcase business opportunities in a surging Asian market, organizers said here Thursday.

Called TravelRave 2011, the event will string together a cluster of related events, from October 17 to 23, they said.

They included an ITB Asia travel fair, a retreat for policymakers and industry leaders hosted by the UN World Tourism Organization, a conference on hotel and tourism investment, and an annual meeting of Asian convention and travel bureaus.

Organized by the Singapore Tourism Board, it is a follow-on to a first TravelRave last year that drew 8,000 people.

Aw Kaw Peng, the head of the Singapore Tourism Board, said it was the only “mega tourism and travel festival” in a region that saw 13 percent growth in the number of international visitors last year over 2009.

“Asia Pacific will continue to lead the global recovery in tourism,” with double digit increases in both arrivals and tourism revenues, she said at a news conference here on the sidelines of a “summit” on global travel and tourism.

She said co-locating related conventions and conferences was intended “to make it even more productive for business executives.”