Free Singapore Tour for layover travellers resumes, visits to local residences now included

SINGAPORE - After a three-year hiatus because of the pandemic, the Free Singapore Tour for layover travellers resumed on Monday, comprising four daily guided tours of less than three hours each.

For the first time, visits to local community spaces and residences will be among the itinerary options for transit and transfer visitors who are here for 5½ to 24 hours.

The newest addition is a 2½-hour-long Changi Precinct Tour, which includes stops at Tampines New Town to see local housing, and at Tampines Central Park to catch uniquely designed playgrounds.

Other stops include Singapore’s first integrated community and lifestyle hub, Our Tampines Hub; Changi Chapel and Museum; Changi Village; and Changi Beach Park.

Three returning tours – City Sights Tour, Heritage Tour and Jewel Tour – will have new points of interest.

The City Sights Tour will now include a stop in the Civic District to take in the National Gallery Singapore, Anderson Bridge and the Padang. The bus route will also take visitors through the Marina Bay Financial District en route to Gardens by the Bay.

The Heritage Tour, which will be available from June, will stop at multicultural destinations such as Chinatown, Arab Street and Haji Lane.

On the Jewel Tour, tourists will visit popular Changi Airport attractions such as the Shiseido Forest Valley and the HSBC Rain Vortex, as well as sample snacks and learn about Singapore’s food heritage through local brands such as Bee Cheng Hiang and Tong Garden.

The free tours, which will be run by home-grown company Monster Day Tours, can be booked on the

Changi Airport website.

The bus tours – Changi Precinct, City Sights and Heritage – take up to 40 visitors each session, while the Jewel Tour, a walking tour, accepts up to 25 people for a round.

There are plans to progressively increase the frequency to nine tours a day, from the three that started on Monday, said Changi Airport Group (CAG), Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in a joint statement.

Transit and transfer passengers accounted for about 30 per cent of passenger traffic at Changi Airport prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, they said.

Over 80,000 passengers went on the free tours in 2019, with travellers from India and Australia making up more than one-third of the total participants.

“The Free Singapore Tour was very popular among our transit and transfer passengers prior to the pandemic, and we are happy to bring it back with the resumption of travel,” said Mr Lim Ching Kiat, executive vice-president of air hub and cargo development at CAG, adding that the tour is designed to give travellers a glimpse of what Singapore has to offer.

Mr Chang Chee Pey, assistant chief executive of the marketing group at STB, said: “It is imperative for us to refresh our tourism offerings to meet the demand for wellness and eco-conscious travel, and cater to travellers seeking deeper experiences.

“We hope that the tour will inspire transit and transfer passengers to plan a longer trip to Singapore in future, and discover much more of what our vibrant city has to offer.”

Before the start of the pandemic, Changi Airport was the world’s seventh busiest in terms of international passenger traffic, managing a record 68.3 million passenger movements in 2019.

The recovery of passenger traffic is on track, with Transport Minister S. Iswaran saying in March that it is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.

STB’s forecasts for visitor arrivals in 2023 are bullish, with 2022’s 6.3 million figure expected to double and hit 12 million to 14 million.

Singapore’s international visitor arrivals grew to 957,605 in February, up from 931,652 in January.

While the February figure set a new record since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, it is still significantly below the 1.7 million visitors recorded in January 2020.