Earlier this year, the company launched its new travel marketing hub, Star Hub, to allow its partners, including many of the world's global prestigious brands, to expand and enhance marketing activities on its Ctrip platform.
Resorts World Sentosa StarHub Flagship Store on Trip.com mobile app
The RWS Star Hub flagship store is a one-stop online portal where users can easily make bookings with the travel guidance, food recommendations, and business travel and conference information available on the same platform at their fingertips. This allows RWS to better meet increasing demand from China's emerging mass affluent segment and new millennials for more customised and personalised experiences.
Commenting on the launch, Bo Sun, Chief Marketing Officer of Trip.com Group said, "We are very pleased to have RWS come onboard our Star Hub platform with the launch of its flagship store. Since the introduction of the Star Hub channel earlier this year, we have seen active participation from hundreds of valuable partners as they seek to adapt to new and unique ways of connecting with their target customers. We will continuously seek to work with our partners to innovate and tackle new frontiers as we strive towards the recovery of the travel industry."
As Asia's leading lifestyle integrated resort, RWS is one of the most popular travel destinations for Chinese tourists and business travellers. It is also home to award-winning attractions including Universal Studios Singapore, the S.E.A. Aquarium, Adventure Cove Waterpark, and Dolphin Island. Bringing even more excitement than the adventure and adrenaline of its diverse entertainment offerings are six distinguished luxury hotels, the world-class Resorts World Convention Centre, as well as a plethora of premium restaurants and high-end boutique brands situated at the gateway of Sentosa Island.
China has been the largest source of inbound tourists for Singapore in recent years, with more than 3.6 million Chinese tourists visiting Singapore in 2019.
Although outbound travel is currently limited due to the ongoing pandemic, data from Trip.com Group indicates that with the rollout of vaccination programmes in both China and Singapore, consumer enthusiasm for travelling to Singapore has gradually strengthened. In Q2 2021, searches for key words on Ctrip such as "Singapore", "Sentosa" and "Universal Studios Singapore" increased by more than 30 percent compared to the previous quarter.
In July 2020, Trip.com Group held a livestream event which featured a plethora of deals in Singapore. This livestream concluded with 10,076 Singapore hotel rooms booked live and over 4.5 million viewers tuning in. As a result, multiple hotels under RWS were sold out during the live broadcast. As one of the official partners for the SingaporeRediscovers Vouchers, Trip.com Group has also collaborated with RWS to encourage domestic tourism in the Republic.
This latest partnership with Trip.com Group enables RWS to further enhance its destination marketing campaign in anticipation of greater demand when global tourism returns. Leveraging Trip.com Group's rich marketing solutions, RWS can showcase its full suite of diverse product offerings, strengthen customer loyalty and improve the convenience of making online bookings. In future, the two brands will also deepen partnership in international marketing to increase RWS's social media presence across Southeast Asia and global destination markets.
Edward Chew, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing of RWS, commented, "Our partnership with Trip.com Group will enable us to better engage our guests from Greater China via the easily accessible and popular Star Hub store on the Trip.com Group Ctrip platform. As an SG Clean destination, RWS has implemented stringent Safe Management Measures in line with the Singapore Government's directives. We look forward to welcoming our overseas guests soon and offering them many memorable moments at RWS."
