SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - The largest dampener to pandemic travel is the quarantine one has to serve upon arrival. But come March, that will no longer be necessary for travellers looking to hold business meetings in Singapore. They can meet with their business counterparts in a bubble-wrapped board room at Connect@Changi, with guests on the other side separated by an air-tight glass panel.
Connect@Changi currently takes up Hall 7 of Singapore Expo, offering 150 guest rooms and 40 meeting rooms that can accommodate a range of meeting sizes, from four to 22 participants. Guests will be able to stay for a duration of between 24 hours and 14 days.
The facility, set up within 14 weeks of round-the-clock construction, is developed by a Temasek-led Singapore consortium that includes The Ascott, Changi Airport Group, Sheares Healthcare Group, SingEx-Sphere Holdings and Surbana Jurong.
The launch is part of the Connect@Singapore initiative announced on Dec 15, as part of Singapore’s efforts to reopen its borders in a controlled and safe manner. Under the scheme, select business, official and high economic value travellers would be able to enter the city-state for a period of up to 14 days.
Room rates start from $384 for an executive room, and $432 for a premium room, which offers views of the central courtyard area. Costs are inclusive of three meals, Covid-19 tests and airport transfers.
“Without such a facility, travel options are essentially binary — either stay at home due to travel restrictions, or fly overseas and endure long periods in quarantine,” said Robin Hu, head of international policy & governance at Temasek and chairman of SingEx-Sphere Holdings in a statement.
Upon arrival, all foreign travellers are required to go through a Covid-19 test regime, which includes a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test upon arrival at Changi Airport, and on days three, seven and 14 of their stay. Depending on the requirements of their destination country upon departure, they will also be required to take another PCR test.
Crucially, visitors who are based in Singapore will not be required to undergo Covid-19 testing. The bubble-wrapped business facility has been designed with completely separate entrances, exits and ventilation systems. The side which houses business travellers have doors which are only accessible one-way. Cameras will also be installed to ensure no intermingling between groups of travellers.
With the launch of the facility, Temasek hopes that this would encourage business meetings, which would in turn kickstart travel. “We came up with the idea to repurpose Halls 7 to 10 of [Expo] into a facility like this, which we have dedicated to allow business meetings to happen, that will enable travel to happen, and gradually we will be able to get business as close to a new normal as we could under this kind of circumstance,” said Alan Thompson, joint head, strategic development, Temasek International, at the launch of Connect@Changi.
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Once the initial phase of the project is completed in May, Connect@Changi will expand to 660 guest rooms and 170 meeting rooms. Upon full completion by year-end, it will be able to host some 1,300 business travellers.
“We assessed that Covid-19 was going to have long-tail effects, possibly lasting for several years, before pre-pandemic travel patterns would resume. In pre-pandemic times, nine in 10 business travellers spent up to five days in Singapore but this had disappeared overnight as a result of Covid-19,” says Keith Lin, director, public affairs, Temasek International.
At the bubble-wrapped hotel, safe management features include a document transfer box available in the larger 22-pax boardrooms, which would allow documents to be sanitised by UV lighting before being transferred to another party. The doors to the document transfer box can only be opened at one side each time, ensuring contact is impossible between Singapore-based visitors and travellers.
In addition, travellers will be served meals through a dedicated shelf outside their rooms. A red light outside the occupant’s room indicates that he will not be allowed to leave his room. Self-service vending machines and a Starbucks coffee machine will be available next to an indoor courtyard. Guests can also use the gym and spin pods provided.
“We know that business travellers need comfortable accommodation while on short trips to meet with their Singapore-based counterparts or with those from other countries, and all these while protecting our local community,” Lin adds.
So far, Connect@Changi has received confirmed bookings from Advanced MedTech, a global medical technology company focusing on urology devices and services. The Singapore-based firm will hold an in-person global senior leadership meeting at the facility, its first such physical meeting since the pandemic began last year.
The facility has also received enquiries from parties keen on doing contract negotiations and deal-related discussions, reveals Ervin Yeo, managing director for Southeast Asia, The Ascott. “What is interesting to them is the ability to meet with a counterpart without having to serve a 14-day quarantine first, because if there’s something pressing, they want to be able to come pretty quickly.”