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Ah Sing says that about 2.2 million Sinkies have yet to redeem their Sinkieland Rediscover vouchers to date

laksaboy

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
If so many citizens not taking up this wonderful offer...maybe it is not so wonderful or practical after all.

I remember they had even put up Sinkie Rediscover ad banners in many places, for example along Orchard Road. Must be truly worth it to spend that money. :wink:
 

laksaboy

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
the prices of attractions are jacked up by the booking sites just because they accept the dam vouchers.

if book directly at attraction, it's usually cheaper but cannot use the vouchers.

if this isn't profiteering, I don't know what is.

Also, if your ticket costs $32, $40 worth of vouchers will be deducted. The extra $8 is magically spirited away, never to be seen again. :rolleyes:
 

Hypocrite-The

Alfrescian
Loyal
It's obvious a jobs for the boys scam. Y need to book online via apps n all that crap? Just issue normal vouchers for the ppl. N get vendors to accept. Apps owned by temasek?
STB says it has no plans to change redemption method of SingapoRediscovers vouchers
SingapoRediscovers day 1 (1)
A staff member assists Mr Narayana Samy in his booking. (Photo: Cindy Co)
Bookmark
SINGAPORE: As it ramps up marketing efforts to nudge more Singaporeans to make use of their SingapoRediscovers vouchers, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said it has “no plans to change the fundamental mechanics” of how these vouchers are redeemed.

As part of propping up the battered tourism industry, it was announced last September that every Singaporean aged 18 and above would receive S$100 worth of tourism vouchers that can be used on staycations, attraction tickets and local tours.

Redemption of these vouchers started in December last year but as of Mar 28, about three-quarters of adult Singaporeans have not done so. These vouchers will expire at the end of June.

READ: About three-quarters of adult Singaporeans have not used their SingapoRediscovers vouchers
Some users have raised concerns about the complexities and inconvenience of having to sieve through offerings on five different booking platforms, and other hiccups they encountered during their bookings online. Some also said having the redemption online can be intimidating for those who are less tech-savvy, especially the elderly.

Asked if there were plans to make it easier for people to redeem their vouchers, STB chief executive Keith Tan said the tourism board had previously laid out why the scheme was designed as a “digital-only process” so “there are no plans to change the fundamental mechanics of the scheme”.

“What we can do and been doing already is to make it easier for those who are not so digitally-savvy to access the schemes, whether through physical touch points at the CCs (community centres) or the physical platforms that have been established by our booking partners,” he added.

“And those are still available.”

However there has been a decline in the number of people showing up at the physical touchpoints set up at the community centres over the last few weeks, said Mr Tan.

“And I hope that's also partly a reflection of the fact that once you've tried it at least once, you actually find that it's not difficult at all,” he said.
 

laksaboy

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Asset
No need to book via apps, you can do it on a PC browser. But yes, you need to do it online and only those few 'approved' ticket sellers qualify.

Probably another 'SG Smart Nation' initiative by some woefully out of touch technocrats. :biggrin:
 

Hypocrite-The

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Loyal
Theindependent
Vouchers have to be redeemed by June 30


Photo: Facebook screengrab/ Singapore Tourism Board
Author

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Singapore – Despite its low redemption rate, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced no plans to change how SingapoRediscovers vouchers (SRV) are redeemed.

Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said on Monday (April 5) that about three-quarters of, or 2.2 million, adult Singaporeans had not redeemed their SRV.

As of March 28, 2021, over 760,000 adult Singaporeans have used their SRV at least once. Collectively, more than S$108 million in vouchers and additional expenditure has been spent under the scheme, said Mr Chan.

The SRV initiative was introduced in September 2020, where every Singaporean aged 18 and above last year received S$100 worth of vouchers to be used on staycations, attraction tickets or tours.

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Redemption of the vouches started in December last year. They will expire on June 30, 2021.

However, some users have raised concern about the complexities and inconvenience of scrolling through eligible offerings across five different booking platforms when trying to redeem their voucher.

STB has appointed five authorised booking partners for the scheme, namely, Changi Travel Services Pte Ltd, GlobalTix Pte Ltd, Klook Travel Technology Pte Ltd with UOB Travel Planners Pte Ltd (as consortium members), Traveloka Services Pte Ltd and Trip.com Travel Singapore Pte Ltd.

According to a channelnewsasia.com report on Wednesday (April 7), some experienced other technical difficulties during their online bookings. The entire process also proved to be intimidating for those who are less tech-savvy, such as the elderly.

STB chief executive Keith Tan announced in response to the possibility of simplifying the redemption process that “there are no plans to change the fundamental mechanics of the scheme.”

“What we can do and been doing already is to make it easier for those who are not so digitally-savvy to access the schemes, whether through physical touchpoints at the CCs (community centres) or the physical platforms that have been established by our booking partners,” said Mr Tan to CNA.

“And those are still available.”

He noted, however, that there has been a decline in the number of people visiting the physical touchpoints over the last few weeks.

“And I hope that’s also partly a reflection of the fact that once you’ve tried it at least once, you actually find that it’s not difficult at all,” added Mr Tan.

Efforts will be increased in the upcoming months to encourage Singaporeans to redeem their vouchers.

“To encourage more usage, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), together with the onboarded merchants and authorised booking partners, will intensify efforts in the next few months,” said Mr Chan.

This includes sharing products and promotions across attractions, tours, and hotels, through STB and the authorised booking partner channels.

Mr Chan highlighted that there is currently no change to the redemption deadline of June 30, 2021.

“We will continue to monitor the redemption rate over the remaining months before considering if any extension of the redemption deadline is warranted.” /TISG

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Scrooball (clone)

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The only people benefitting from this idiotic voucher scheme are the clowns who are in charge of rolling out the campaign. Lol

Vouchers are a bad idea because it will inevitably benefit some operators more than others. For example, backpacker or hostel types are screwed since families won’t consider using vouchers on those.
 

Hypocrite-The

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Commentary: It’s a shame redeeming SingapoRediscovers vouchers can be such a hassle
The Singapore tourism vouchers should be easy to use to encourage more to redeem, but there are many hoops to hop through, making the experience potentially off-putting, says CNA’s Erin Low.
The Discovery Pool at SEA Aquarium. (Photo: SEA Aquarium)Bookmark
SINGAPORE: My mum knocked on my door with iPad in hand. She had spent the past half an hour trying to redeem SingapoRediscovers vouchers for a staycation, but to no avail.
It was 11pm on a weekday night. For another hour, I tried to help while she hovered over my shoulder.
The sticking point was payment. I generated a few voucher codes via the SingPass app, but each time I entered them into the booking site, then payment details, the message was: Transaction failed.
What made it worse was the 15-minute wait in between generating each code. One had to expire first before another attempt at redeeming the voucher could be made.
By this time, I was getting very cranky. After receiving what felt like the hundredth error message, I gave up and went to sleep.
The next day, my mum, anxious about claiming her Government-sponsored staycation, called up the booking site. They told her the system was down last night due to an influx of traffic.
They handled everything for her in a jiffy. The happy ending is that my parents enjoyed themselves very much at Changi Beach.
READ: Commentary: What the Singapore tourism vouchers are really about
WHAT ARE THE PAIN POINTS?
It seems we weren’t alone in our experience with technical difficulties. Netizens have reported trouble redeeming the SingapoRediscovers vouchers.
The S$100 worth of credit given to Singaporean citizens aged 18 and up to spend is not just a symbolic gesture of helping the tourism sector struggling from the effects of the pandemic. It also serves as a little gift to residents to take time out and explore our city.
So it was quite a pity that only a quarter of adult Singaporeans have redeemed their vouchers so far, even though they expire soon in end-June.
Beach at Singapore's Sentosa island. (Photo: Unsplash/Annie Spratt)
The complaints seem to coalesce around a few things.
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First, there’s no central portal for SingapoRediscovers voucher redemptions. Let’s say you have a hotel in mind for your staycation.
In order to see whether you can use your SingapoRediscovers vouchers, you might have to browse the five Singapore Tourism Board (STB)-authorised booking portals through which the vouchers can be redeemed, because they may not be listed on every one.
You might experience disappointment if you realise your getaway is not SingapoRediscovers-eligible – or that the dates and rooms you want are all sold out, bringing you back to the drawing board.
READ: Commentary: I used to think a staycation was a poor alternative for being overseas. Then I took one
Second, there are quite a few steps to redeeming the voucher. Choose the package, choose date and time, add to cart, click “Use SingapoRediscovers voucher”, get redirected to SingPass, log in, generate the code, enter the code, proceed to payment.
Doing that for one person isn’t too bad. But imagine having to repeat the process for each member of your family if you’re redeeming vouchers for a group outing.
STB explained vouchers cannot be stacked to prevent fraud and resale. The purpose of the vouchers is to support as many tourism businesses as possible, rather than to expend them all in one purchase, it clarified.
This sounds like a sensible policy move. But the effect is a clunky user experience.
There are anecdotes of families not being able to get the same time slot to certain attractions. By the time they get to the final members of the family, the time slot they were intending to book got maxed out.
Visitors wait in line to enter the Singapore Zoo on its first day of reopening to the public on Jul 6, 2020, after the attraction was temporarily closed due to COVID-19. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
Possibly to discourage frivolous booking and cancellation, there’s no option to reschedule bookings using SingapoRediscover vouchers. But this only adds to the frustration.
USER EXPERIENCE HAS TO BE AT THE CENTER
STB said it won’t change the fundamental mechanics of SingapoRediscovers, as it was always designed as a “digital-only process”. This makes sense in the larger context of Singapore’s journey as a smart nation, where most everyday transactions can be done virtually.
Technology has been a boon in some aspects of our lives. The Parking.sg app has made drivers’ lives so much easier. It allows users to pay for parking on their mobile phones and adjust their parking sessions remotely if needed.
The reason this works is that the developers understood where the pain points of the old coupon parking system were and how drivers behave – like how we often run over our parking time. The fact that the GPS system picks up your location so you don’t have to key in your carpark, combined with seamless payment, makes it a breeze to park and pay.
READ: Commentary: Self-driving buses and delivery robots welcomed but who do we blame if AI goes rogue in Singapore?
It may not be fair to compare parking to the SingapoRediscovers vouchers, which are very different in nature. After all, striking that balance between function and design is no mean feat.
But poor user design can be a real bane. The teething issues around TraceTogether were a case in point. When the contact tracing app was launched, it experienced low adoption rates, ostensibly due to battery drainage among other concerns.
After an app update fixed the chief issue, over 70 per cent of the population now use the app or token, which authorities set as a requirement for Singapore to move into Phase 3 of its reopening on Dec 28.
TraceTogether demonstrates how the implementation of technology is key to public policy rollout that can help Singapore achieve big, strategic goals, and in this case of the SingapoRediscovers vouchers, the uplifting of the tourism industry. It’s essential to get these services right from the get-go, so that people do not lose confidence and abandon them entirely.
READ: Commentary: Singapore’s almost in our new normal. Don’t be the dud who jeopardises that
A sign at Clementi Mall directing users of the TraceTogether app and token to enter separately. (Photo: Ang Hwee Min)
For any technology to work well, it boils down to what a user really wants to do; what motivates or frustrates him. In SingapoRediscovers' case, families want to go out with each other but they want to do it with as little fuss as possible.
COULD IT HAVE BEEN BETTER?
So what could have been done differently?
Several have suggested a single portal that can display all packages eligible for the SingapoRediscovers voucher. There’s a problem in making this happen because the point of having multiple booking partners is to allow them to compete with each other, by offering more affordable or innovative packages.
Perhaps the designers could have considered eliminating the number of layers one has to go through to verify and claim the vouchers – giving options to use multiple SingapoRediscovers vouchers in group bookings, for instance.
READ: Commentary: No travel plans these school holidays, but that's ok
Finally, the use of SingPass as an online authentication tool in the redemption process can exclude the less digitally savvy, or those with limited Internet access.
While it is possible for people to visit select SingPost branches, community centres and malls to physically redeem vouchers, this is yet another tedious step just to sidestep a tech problem.
 

laksaboy

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
It’s a shame redeeming SingapoRediscovers vouchers can be such a hassle

That's the hallmark of PAP rule, I'm surprised people are only rediscovering it now. :roflmao:

Same for social welfare: make you jump through the hoops so that only those who really want it will get it. Prove your sincerity, everyone is assumed to be fraudulent/guilty by default. :cool:

A bloated government brings along with it a bloated bureaucracy, and they will keep inventing superfluous things to justify their continued existence. Case in point: 'SG Clean' stickers.

A small, limited government is your only assurance of liberty, security and prosperity. :sneaky:
 

halsey02

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
No need to book via apps, you can do it on a PC browser. But yes, you need to do it online and only those few 'approved' ticket sellers qualify.

Probably another 'SG Smart Nation' initiative by some woefully out of touch technocrats. :biggrin:

Don't forget the 'few approved' will 'approved' inflated prices, using the voucher can get you into the gate only; have to pay extra to use the fascilities.
 

birdie69

Alfrescian
Loyal
Don't forget the 'few approved' will 'approved' inflated prices, using the voucher can get you into the gate only; have to pay extra to use the fascilities.
When we will receive the $100 grocery voucher? Why some of them only received $50, not $100 as mentioned in the parliament?
 

Hypocrite-The

Alfrescian
Loyal
i have not used my Vouchers.
but but if they can reveal who Clown/Clowns suggest this scheme i will definitely use them.

bet all in the Estab have not use them also.
Such schemes are designed by the pappies to show singkies that they are doing something. It was not meant to work for the benefits of singkies n small businesses
 
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