Speaking at the Tourism Industry Conference of Singapore, the minister said Singapore recognises that it will take a few years for international travel to fully resume, but the country needs to speed up the recovery of the tourism sector in the immediate term.
Singapore will strive to differentiate itself from other destinations, putting the focus on creating attractions and events with sustainability, and business tourism, Singapore Tourism Board Chief Executive Keith Tan said at the event.
The Southeast Asian nation has recently opened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers without requiring COVID-19 testing or quarantine.
After a two-year halt due to the pandemic, all nightlife businesses in Singapore will be allowed to fully reopen from April 19, with COVID-19 safety measures in place.
Nightlife establishments, including bars, pubs and karaoke establishments will be subject to safe management measures (SMMs).
Additionally, a safe distance of at least 1m will have to be kept between individuals or groups when masks are off. Capacity limits for large settings or events with more than 1,000 people are at 75 percent. Those with fewer than 1,000 people will have no capacity limits.
The latest move for the nightlife sector comes as several SMM rules were eased last week, after the daily number of COVID-19 cases reported started to decline from late-February.
