Switzerland’s national tourist organisation, Switzerland Tourism is planning to open a regional office in Singapore from 01 June this year.

Switzerland Tourism Executive Vice President for MICE Mr Urs Eberhard said the decision to set up an office in Singapore was to tap into the South East Asia tourist market.

The role of the new Director, which has not been appointed, will be to build strong relationships and drive marketing and sales initiatives in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

The new regional office will also obtain support from the Swiss embassies in all four countries mentioned.

Mr Eberhard who recently lead a delegation of representatives from Swiss tour agencies to Singapore said that the new office will also act as an educational facility to educate travel agents.

He added that it will also carry out joint promotions, work with mainstream and social media platforms and apply e-marketing.

Mr Eberhard said that on the whole Switzerland Tourism predicted the tourism arrival figures from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to grow to 415,000 overnight visitors by 2015.