Travel and tourism players yesterday welcomed Singapore's - and the Asia-Pacific's - first physical trade show since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, a key step towards having more such trade shows here.

TravelRevive, a two-day trade show being held at Sands Expo and Convention Centre until today, was made possible with the introduction of new safety measures to help ensure the health and safety of exhibitors and attendees.

Among the exhibitors at TravelRevive was tech solutions firm LDR, which has designed walking tours and recently pivoted to providing solutions for virtual conferences and events.

LDR business development manager Kelvin Yeo said that while the trade show was rather quiet, he prefers a quiet physical show over a virtual one even if the latter may come with more meeting opportunities.

"I'd rather have one quality conversation in person than 100 conversations over Zoom," he said, noting that virtual conferences and meetings with multiple breakout rooms can be chaotic.

TravelRevive is the first pilot trade show held in Singapore under the newly developed hybrid event trade show prototype for safe business events, safe itineraries and digital enabler tools, as part of a collaboration under one of the Emerging Stronger Taskforce's Alliance for Action groups.

This prototype is for larger events with more attendees than the limit of 250 imposed for meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (Mice) events, for which the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) continues to accept pilot applications.

TravelRevive is the first physical trade show held here since the Singapore Airshow in February. The hybrid event also features virtual conferences.

Close to 1,000 attendees and exhibitors are expected on site, including some 65 foreign delegates from 14 countries. The organisers are STB and Messe Berlin (Singapore).

A total of 36 exhibition booths have been set up, with each exhibitor getting a dedicated meeting pod. These booths and pods are equipped with plexiglass panels, which enable face-to-face discussions to be held safely.

The Warehouse Hotel director of sales Elaine Luei said that while there are fewer buyers at the event compared with pre-Covid-19 trade shows, the measures put in place - such as the plexiglass shields at each meeting pod - are thorough and "help to protect people".

"The organisers were quite proactive in telling us what to expect," she added.

As part of safe management measures, attendees were separated into cohorts of 20 and interactions were limited across groups. They were also given TraceTogether tokens to facilitate contact tracing.

Foreign delegates and some local attendees and exhibitors were required to take antigen rapid tests yesterday.

STB executive director for exhibitions and conferences Andrew Phua explained that different testing approaches are being used for the various Mice events.

For each pilot event, we work closely with the Ministry of Health. It's really quite customised in (seeing what is) the best way and best approach to test... and at the same time, ensure that everybody is tested safely and business events can be held in a safe and trusted manner," he said, adding that about 500 people will be tested at TravelRevive.

Safe itineraries, which include private museum visits and virtual tours, have been curated for foreign delegates, who need to take a test on alternate days, in addition to the tests required on event days.

Changi Airport Group has also developed an online tool called the Safe Travel Concierge to help travellers customise a travel checklist of pre-entry requirements.

Among the foreign delegates at the event yesterday was Ms Natjariya Rodprukpoom, managing director of Thailand-based tour agency Asia Hub, who is in Singapore until Saturday.

She is here not only to meet some hotel and attraction partners, but also to assess the situation for tourists here.

"We want to know how Singapore takes care of the tourists, how it controls the (infection spread), and what is going on with the tourist industry in Asia. Coming here, I see how Singapore has developed the technology to (track us and our itineraries), and Singapore has done very well," she said.

Correction note: This article has been edited for accuracy.