Corporate tourism means more to Singapore than hospitality

ON the face of it, discussions at the Apec Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Peru over the weekend would be as foreign to Singapore businesses as the meeting's location. But with the agenda centring on further integration of the Asia-Pacific tourism market, and how a wider range of industries can leverage tourism, its relevance to Singapore becomes clearer and a little closer to home.

Asean's focus on trade growth often shrouds another critical contributor to its economic development - the…