Travel agent treats

EVA Air recently introduced a reward scheme for Taiwan travel agencies who market its leisure outbound programme, Evergreen Holiday. To qualify for an incentive trip, travel agencies must hit a sales revenue of US$17.6m per year. This year, 30 agencies qualified for the trip. The top qualifiers for EVA Air's chosen destination, Singapore, were Southeast Travel, Comfort Travel, Lion Travel, Visa Tour, Apple Travel and Signet Travel. They spent two nights and three days in Singapore, and comprised mainly senior level executives who were mostly male. EVA Air sponsored the airfares, while the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) assisted the group by appointing a local DMC, Vacation Asia, to handle the ground logistics. The hotels, Shangri-La Singapore, Meritus Mandarin, Le Meridien and Phoenix Hotel, offered free rooms to encourage the agents to bring more Taiwanese travelers to the country. Three senior EVA Air executives and two travel trade journalists accompanied the group on business class from Taipei, arriving on June 1, 2004. At Changi Airport, a group of ladies dressed in Chinese, Indian, Malay and Peranakan costumes welcomed the contingent with flower bouquets for the ladies and orchid corsages for the men. They headed for a buffet lunch at Equinox, in Raffles City Complex. Equinox is a complex comprising five restaurants and bars, private dining for up to 400, and a seating capacity for over 900 patrons. Situated at the highest point in Singapore, on levels 68 through 72 of Raffles City, the eatery provides panoramic views of Singapore and neighbouring countries Malaysia and Indonesia. Taxi travel After lunch, the group checked into four hotels, Shangri-La, Meritus Mandarin, Le Meridien and Phoenix. At 5pm, they were chauffer driven in 11 London cabs to Esplanade, Theatres on the Bay for a site inspection, proceeding to the Gala Award Dinner venue nearby, The Arts House at the Old Parliament. The building is Singapore's latest arts and heritage venue which was built in 1827 and re-opened this year after extensive restoration. In keeping with the Indian theme night, the group was greeted by Indian women dressed in saris who showered the group with flower petals and decorated the women guests with bindis on their foreheads. After cocktails, the group went on a venue tour. STB business travel/MICE manager, Jaclyn Fam says: "The Taiwanese take great interest in politics and they were intrigued by the history of the venue, including the seat which Lee Kuan Yew used to occupy." For dinner, the group adjourned to The Blue Room, a multipurpose venue that was formerly a blue-coloured lounge where Members of Parliament could rest between sessions. After a welcome speech by EVA Air executive vice president passenger division Peter Chen, four Indian dancers regaled the group with their vigorous dance routines. Top ten travel agencies This was followed by an award ceremony for the top ten travel agencies. Local artiste, Suzy Wong, performed a song and dance rendition and got the crowd to guess the names of various songs that were sung in the languages of Singapore: Tamil, Malay and Mandarin. The group was then encouraged to do a singalong with Wong. There was a buffet spread of local cuisine, and free flow of wine and beer. "As travel agents, they are by nature more sociable. They are also open to trying different types of food, especially spicy food. They also like to sing a lot, so we introduced the singalong session during dinner," adds Fam. The next morning, the group headed to Meritus Mandarin for a presentation of Singapore's latest MICE offerings by STB. Then they headed for the Spice Garden at Fort Canning and were given a 30-minute tour of the various spices used in Southeast Asian cuisine. Next on the itinerary was East Coast Road, the Peranakan enclave of Singapore, where they visited Rumah Bebe, a historical Peranakan shophouse. Intricate beadwork used to adorn Nonya clothes, bags and shoes, was on show in the shop. The group also visited a rice dumpling store next door to learn how grilled spicy fish paste, otak, and rice dumplings, bak chang, are made. After a one-hour tour, they headed for Shangri-La Hotel for a site inspection of the new Valley Wing and the Garden and Tower Wings, followed by a buffet lunch. The Great Singapore Sale was on during the month of June and about half the group headed to Orchard Road's Duty Free Shopping complex. According to Vacation Asia travel agent Howard Lim, the agents spent close to US$5,882 on branded goods that afternoon. Some chose to head to Raffles Hotel's Long Bar for a Singapore Sling cocktail. The earthy decor of the two-storey Long Bar was inspired by Malayan plantations in the 1920s. Dinner was at Chinatown's Smith Street, which is lined with hawker food stalls. A long table was set up for the group to enjoy local fare al fresco. Says Lim: "The only disappointment they had was not having enough time to eat Singapore's well known chilli and pepper crabs. They also wanted more time to eat at the Shangri-La Hotel's buffet which served barbecue seafood, Japanese, Indian, Malay and Chinese food." That evening, the agents went to Crown Prince Hotel for a karaoke session until midnight. The next day, the group visited a Kwan Yin Temple on Waterloo Street. Not content to head home without trying Singapore's version of stewed pork ribs, bak kut teh, the group headed to Rangoon Road for taste before they boarded EVA Air for home.