Tourism strategy to focus on getting visitors to spend more
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SINGAPORE: Singapore's tourism strategy will not only involve increasing visitor numbers.
Second Trade and Industry Minister S Iswaran says there will be more emphasis on deriving higher economic yield from tourists.
This means planning for events and activities to generate extra spending from visitors.
International events like the Formula One Grand Prix have nudged Singapore closer to becoming a truly global destination.
The night race has attracted over 150,000 visitors, spending more than S$560 million within the first few years of its staging.
Mr Iswaran thinks the numbers can improve, if more careful focus is placed on sideshow activities to pull in more tourist dollars.
"The important thing is what are the sort of supporting, or naturally complementary activities which will strengthen the value proposition and the experience of the Formula One race in Singapore? So, one can envisage, for example, lifestyle events, fashion events, you know, maybe the watch industry, maybe the fashion industry and so on, coming in," he said.
Mr Iswaran says the tourism strategy centres around three "C's" - content, clients and connectivity.
Singapore attractions and tourism infrastructure must offer enough content to lure visitors.
The River Safari, home to pandas 'Kai Kai' and 'Jia Jia', will officially open in 2013, and it is expected to do its part in charming tourists.
Where clients are concerned, the key is to study important market segments to see how more visitors can be brought in to Singapore.
On connectivity, the aim is to position the Republic as a regional tourism gateway for visitors.
"A very good example of this is in fact the cruise industry, because many of the cruise lines tell us, one of the attractions of Singapore is because we are also an important air hub in the region, the whole idea of fly-cruise, is very attractive. They can come in to Changi, seamlessly integrate into the cruise lines, and then from there go on a trip in the region," he said.
One area Singapore might have to work harder at improving is customer satisfaction.
A 2012 survey found that tourists were less happy with the quality of goods and services in the country, compared to before. And this is where attractions have to raise their game in order to keep people coming for more.
Walter Lim, vice chairman of the Association of Singapore Attractions, said: "We will encourage attractions to invest in their staff, look at ways of equipping them to provide better ways to sort of, tell the story, design the exhibits, as well as provide better customer service."
Older attractions are being urged to continually re-invent themselves, to keep up with new competition.
- CNA/de -
even my foreign friends visited sentosa before and prefer the old sentosa
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got fryer got night race got gardens got pandas
still want wat
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move singaporeans next to cemetery in lim chu kang so that the HDB land can be use to generate more tourists money for gahmen..and gahmen only
u peasants cannot touch
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LCK cemetery gut, can create zombie land (real life shost ghoul and zombie) for tourist to visit. an play play
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Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
LCK cemetery gut, can create zombie land (real life shost ghoul and zombie) for tourist to visit. an play play
the way PAP keep cheating the citizens out of their hard earned salary, even Zombies also go Malaysia and other countries because they cannot afford to be here. -
singaporeans in cages at the zoo should be quite a sight.
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More money for people wearing white on NDP. Pocket full full, huat huat !
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Ask them to bid for coe.
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Originally posted by laurence82:
even my foreign friends visited sentosa before and prefer the old sentosa
Old Sentosa no casino.
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old sentosa got Asian Village
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Originally posted by FireIce:
got fryer got night race got gardens got pandas
still want wat
Pandas performing in the open air casino around the night race through the gardens.
How about that?
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how much we need to pay to watch tt?
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Originally posted by FireIce:
how much we need to pay to watch tt?
You add up all the individual entrance fees for each attraction/event.
Maybe give a 5% discount for the total price to attract people to watch it.
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i think some toursit spend more than our locals. vacation also hire photographer. that one was couple. if familyies do that i will sure take on the assignments.
unlike locals or in singapore, big day event like ROM and weddings also want free, cheapo - salty until like karnar!
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move all singaporeans to ubin
mainland singapore for tourists to play