Singapore’s main tourism operators have joined forces for a record-breaking new partnership.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) have renewed their existing tripartite agreement to promote inbound travel to the Lion City.

Under their latest three-year partnership, the three parties will jointly invest SG$33.75 million (approx. US$24m) – the highest amount ever pledged to promote Singapore as destination.

The focus will be on the MICE market, stopover traffic, and “twinning” Singapore with other destinations, such as beaches.

“By collaborating closely with airlines and the travel industry, we can grow passenger segments, such as MICE and transfer passengers,” explained CAG’s CEO, Lee Seow Hiang. “With encouraging results from the current partnership, this second collaboration strengthens all parties’ efforts to raise awareness of Singapore as a stopover point and as a destination.”

The renewed deal will also update the Free Singapore Tour programme, which provides transfer passengers with complimentary bus tours during their layover. This will now be expanded to include more “authentic experiences”, according to the partners, including niche tours based on specific interests like food.

The Free Singapore Tours attracted 59,000 passengers last year, up 8% from 2015, and is now rated as one of the top 10 Singapore tour options on TripAdvisor.

“The renewal of this partnership reflects our confidence that we can continue to cooperate fruitfully to better serve our visitors and drive tourism outcomes,” said STB chief executive Lionel Yeo.