Singapore Immigration Life: The Singapore Tourism Board has released the most comprehensive digital collaboration and mobile internet services to date for the Chinese market, including a newly upgraded official WeChat account and Baidu Direct Number. Chinese tourists will soon be able to search for information about traveling in Singapore at their fingertips, explore Singapore, and instantly share their travel experiences. In addition, the Singapore Tourism Board has also signed four memorandums of cooperation with four online travel service providers, including Alibaba Travel, Tuniu, and social review sites Mafengwo and Dianping, aiming to collaboratively plan and release more engaging content about Singapore as a travel destination over the next 2 to 3 years.
China is Singapore's second-largest source of tourists. According to relevant data, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Singapore reached 1.7 million in 2014, generating S$2.6 billion in tourism revenue. From January to August 2015, the number of Chinese visitors to Singapore reached 1,462,974, a year-on-year increase of 19%. The establishment and implementation of this series of mobile internet collaborations will continue to attract Chinese tourists to visit Singapore. As mentioned by Zhou Zhenxing, Chief Representative and Director of the Singapore Tourism Board for Greater China: "In recent years, the number of independent and self-guided travelers from China to Singapore has been continuously increasing. In addition to the information needed to plan their journeys, they also hope to obtain instant useful information, navigation, payment, and translation tools to help them have a better independent travel experience." The Director of the Singapore Tourism Board, Yang Hanzhong, also stated: "The wave of mobile internet has completely changed the way tourists choose and use travel products. Consumer-centric travel experiences and marketing are important driving forces for the Singapore tourism industry to develop towards quality tourism. The online and internet collaboration plans and services launched for the Chinese market are a perfect reflection of the Singapore Tourism Board's vision for development."