I was at the Singapore Tourism Industry Conference, organised by Singapore Tourism Board, last week and one of the topics that came up for discussion was the women's market – okay, asked by yours truly.

The most candid answer came from Edward Chia (right), co-founder of the Timbre Group, a live music and entertainment group, who said, "In our business, when women come, men come. This is from years of evolution."

So how does his group attract women to its bars? "We think having ladies night is not the way to go, what's more important is creating a safe environment so that they don't feel they will get picked up all the time and they can have fun with their girlfriends."

He's also found that girls consume a fair bit of alcohol – much laughter from audience at this point – and so his group focuses promotions on women. "Most beer festivals are focused on men but we run a beer festival too and I tell our exhibitors to not only hire girls to serve beers but good looking men."

Marvin Tan, CEO of SilkAir, said one of his airline's competitive edge over low cost airlines was that his cabin crew looked after children well – "and we know women make decisions on behalf of families".

While he said that the airline did not have any specific offerings to women, "maybe this is an idea worth exploring".

Zubin Karkaria, CEO and MD of VFS Global, said that men had learnt the hard way that the final buying decision is made by women. "Men don't have the time or patience to spend planning holidays so we leave it to women. We just pay."

At ITB Berlin, I got another perspective from Hansruedi Frutiger, general manager of Movenpick Resort & Spa in Phuket.

He told me that women customers are more inclined to be the first to either complain or compliment.

Full story:

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