No longer content to be known as a low-cost carrier, AirAsia has in
recent years transformed from an airline into a one-stop digital travel
and lifestyle services group. Its latest rebrand to Capital A laid bare
the group's ambitions to go beyond the airline business.
And now AirAsia has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on Thursday, 16 February to
amplify awareness around Singapore’s diversity of touristic offerings
across the region through its super app.
Under this partnership, AirAsia will feature a comprehensive list of
travel and lifestyle experiences in Singapore such as flight and hotel
packages, meals and other activities in its super app.
In return, STB will promote the AirAsia Super App to its stakeholders
and other travel trade partners, encouraging them to actively engage
with the app by contributing their products, offerings, and experiences.
STB, on its part, has also been encouraging stakeholders in
Singapore's tourism industry to build up their digital capabilities to
engage and reach out to a broader segment of the audience, said chief
executive Keith Tan.
"There's now hope that as in working with Asia Super App and other
OTAs, more of our our stakeholders and industry partners can become a
lot more discoverable to a wider audience," he added.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, added that AirAsia Academy, the
group's edutech arm, has also provided "training for companies, small
SMEs and even mom and pop shops to be able to learn how to deal with
this digital world".
The super app will serve to further drive tourism into Singapore as
it allows users to view an extensive breadth of airlines beyond AirAsia
offering Singapore routes.
Tan further added that the partnership was established in hopes of
jointly supporting the overall recovery of tourism both in Singapore and
across the region as he believes that there is a strong pent-up demand
for travel in Asia with border restrictions easing.
Remarking on the wide variety of new and refreshed offerings that
Singapore continues to roll out, Fernandes spoke of how “it never fails
to impress me how much Singapore puts into tourism and how it works on
its tourism infrastructure and creates so much to do in a pretty small
place."
In
addition to establishing a two-way street that collaboratively raises
awareness of both the super app and Singapore’s travel experiences, the
partnership will enable both parties to share and exchange insights and
data for them to develop a better understanding on the ever-evolving
travel demands in a post-pandemic world and adapt to the expectations.