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 increasing intra-regional people flow and the tourism dollars that follow. Latest data from the World Travel and Tourism Council show that travel and tourism directly contributed 4.8 per cent to South-east Asia's gross domestic product, supported 11.2 million jobs and generated US$49 billion in investment in 2014.

However, tourism is more than just holidays; it can also be serious business for corporates in the local market. This is certainly true for Singapore, particularly corporate tourism stemming from the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) sub-sector, which contributes more than 30 per cent of Singapore's total tourism receipts.