Singapore 13th top Country Brand among 100 nations

Jumping up 11 ranks in a listing of the world’s top country brands, Singapore now ranks 13th from last year’s of 24th in FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index (CBI). Singapore also got top spots in the categories of Best Country Brand for Shopping and Best Country Brand - Easiest to Do Business In.

The United States beat it to first spot in the Ideal for Business category, and it earned third spot in the categories of Ideal for Business and Best Country Brand for Conferences.

Singapore also ranked top five in the categories of Best Country Brand for Advanced Technology, Best Country Brand for Standard of Living, Best New Country for Business, and Best Country Brand for Fine Dining, Best Country Brand for Standard of Living and Best Country Brand for Ease of Traval.

“Singapore is one of the star performers in the Country Brand Index, recording one of the biggest increases in ranking of any country” said Tim Riches, CEO FutureBrand Singapore and Chief Growth Officer, Asia-Pacific. “The results show the impact of Singapore’s long term and relatively well integrated efforts in building the country brand from a strong business base, adding on key components of a compelling lifestyle image.”

In CBI’s overall ratings, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and France were the top five countries.

The ratings were done by surveying 3,000 international business and leisure travelers from the US, the UK, China, Australia, Japan, Brazil, UAE, Germany and Russia.

Perceptions of 102 country brands were quantified through questions about behavior around destination selection. Also, factors like overall awareness, familiarity, past visits, intent to visit, and willingness to recommend destinations were considered.

The FutureBrand CBI, now into its fifth year, is a comprehensive study of approximately 3,000 international business and leisure travelers from nine countries. It examines how countries are branded and ranked, and identifies emerging global trends in the world’s fastest growing economic sector – travel and tourism, which accounted for US$944 billion in international tourism receipts in 2008.

The study also emphasized a change in global trends in travel and tourism, such as consumers inclining towards having a more “value-oriented” mindset which means getting better bargains in their travel packages, or customers being willing to settle for “fauxthentic” hotels and tours. For instance, going to Macau’s the Venetian instead of planning an actual trip to Venice.

This means governments need to re-strategize their country’s marketing position. Rene A. Mack, president of Weber Shandwick Travel &Lifestyle Practice said, “The days of countries marketing themselves with travel posters are over. Wise governments harness, propel and amplify their countries as a brand, given it also encompasses culture, exports retail, real estate and of course tax revenue. The popular phrase says ‘tourism is too big to fail,’ but if no one is paying attention or if it is undervalued or taken for granted, the competition will benefit.” Weber Shandwick worked with FutureBrand to conduct the survey.