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More than 20 tourist souvenir shops in Singapore, several of which have been in operation for decades, have closed for good – casualties of Covid-19 travel restrictions here and around the world.
With no end to the pandemic in sight, other shops are seeing this as their inevitable end as well in the months to come, The Sunday Times has found.
On bad days, some gift stores in popular tourist spots such as Chinatown and Bugis Street do not see even a single customer.
Mr Joe Chen, founder of the Singapore Souvenir Centre, one of the bigger players with 10 outlets under different brands, said there could well be a situation where tourism speciality shops all but disappear when travel eventually resumes.
“It would be a pity. After all, we too help to market Singapore to tourists,” noted Mr Chen, 29, who believes that 90 per cent of souvenir shops will fold within the next six months if more help does not come in soon.
The pandemic has decimated the tourism industry, with air travel crippled by border closures.
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