VISITOR MANAGEMENT

Visitor Management- Singapore

Visitor Management- Singapore

Introduction

The management of tourism in Singapore has undergone various changes over the decades. The adoption of different policies and strategies aimed at promoting and championing tourism in Singapore has been subject to socio-economic changes on the local and global fronts. A deeper understanding of the issues pertaining to tourism development in Singapore necessitates a review of the “background” of these challenges as they relate to particular social, economic and political conditions of Singapore. As an introduction, this section aims to review tourism policies of Singapore with particular emphasis on the responses to the issues arising during different periods of Singapore's post-independence history. This will be followed by a synopsis of the chapters included in this book, which will serve to provide a summary map of the main arguments in this volume. A third section will address the future prospects and challenges for Singapore in its tourism management efforts.

The issue of visitor management

Singapore's record 20.2% growth in tourist arrivals last year is not all good news as some of the attractions had a 28% decline in visitorship figures.

According to the Association of Singapore Attractions, 55% of attractions polled registered improvements in visitorship ranging from as little as 1% to over 100% growth compared to Year 2009.

The remaining 45% of attractions polled reported a decline in visitorship figures by 1% to as much as 28%.

Collectively, the attractions sector reported a total attendance of more than 34 million visitors, out of which 50.2% are locals and 49.8% are tourists. This represented a 56.3% net increase over the previous year's figures.

These results were announced by the ASA after a recently concluded survey of the 2010 visitorship performance for its members. A total of 31 of its member attractions representing the lion's share of attractions in Singapore participated in the survey. They include major tourism and lifestyle destinations like the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Sentosa Leisure Group, National Heritage Board museums, and the Singapore Science Centre.

“Our inaugural survey revealed that while national tourist arrivals grew by one-fifth in 2010, its influence wasn't evenly felt across Singapore attractions. We've also discovered that the IRs tend to benefit the attractions on Sentosa island more so than any other location. ASA will continue to work with our members and industry partners like the Singapore Tourism Board and travel trade stakeholders on collaborative programmes to promote our attractions and encourage patronage from arriving visitors. We will continue to make available key industry trends so that members can weave these findings into their business strategies.” commented Kevin Cheong, ASA Chairman.

For the survey, respondents were sorted according to the type (Adventure & Rides, Museums & Heritage, Nature & Parks, Edutainment & Lifestyle, and Multi Offerings), gated and non-gated attractions, location (Civic District, Outside Civic District, Sentosa Island) and the ratio of locals versus tourists. From their submissions, several key findings could be found:

The opening of Resorts World Sentosa may have played a catalytic role on Sentosa island. Overall visitorship to the island spiked tremendously by ...