Tourism Industry in Singapore as the Backbone of Singapores Economy - Term Paper Example

Destination Marketing-Singapore Introduction Asia pacific region is one of the region is the world that is well endowed with numerous tourists’ sites. Most of the countries in this region border the Pacific Ocean a factor that enables these countries to have access to other nations in other continents. The region is strategically placed in that one can access it through water, air or even land transport. Therefore, tourism industry has thrived well in these region and the destinations are very competitive globally. Some of the countries that are in this part of the world are; Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China etc (Yoursingapore, 2011:1). These nations have really invested in this industry and indeed, they have received a lot of income for many years. This paper focuses on Singapore as one of the countries that have serious invested in the tourism sector. The paper will show the statistical information on how the industry is thriving. It will also discuss the reasons why this Singapore is succeeding in the industry and the strategies that have been adopted to increase efficiency in this industry. Tourism industry in Singapore is a major economic sector in the economy of this country. The industry has been stimulated by various factors i. e cultural diversity, geographic location, climatic condition, technological advancement, long rich history, and the economic potential. Singapore tourism board (STB) is an agent of destination marketing (Solidiance, 2008:1). The government created this board in 1964 to manage the affairs of the tourism sector. It was initially called Singapore Tourist promotion board (Yoursingapore, 2011:1). Its main functions were coordinating the efforts of hotels, travel agents and airlines to improve the tourism industry in Singapore. Actually, since its endorsement, much has been realized and the country has moved many steps in tourism industry. Statistical information The number of visitors in the Singapore has been ever increasing over the years. This implies that the income from this industry has been growing too. The only interruption that caused the revenue to come down was during the 2008/2009 financial year when there was a global financial crisis. Nevertheless, the situation improved in the preceding years. In the year 2010, income from tourism industry was estimated to be $18.8 billion, this was a growth of about 49% when compared to the previous 2009 (Yoursingapore, 2011:35). The reports reveal that there is hope for this continued growth due to the prevailing factors that has been put in place by the tourism board to boost this industry. It is amazing that the number of tourists who visits Singapore as tourists are double the population of the residents of the Singapore itself. The population is estimated to be about 5.5 million people. However, reports from the statistical data reveal that in the year 2010, about 11.6 million tourists toured this country (Kumar, 2009: 1). Over 53% of these tourists came from the five biggest markets that is Indonesia about 2.3 million, China about 1.2 million, Malaysia about 1.1 million, Australia 0.8 million and India about 0.75 million tourists. The rest came from other major world markets such as Japan, Philippines, UK, Thailand and US. In 2010, the gazetted hotel room income rated at a total of $1.9 billion registering an increase of 21.8% than in 2009. (Yoursingapore, 2011:35). The average occupancy rate of the rooms was 86%, this was a positive development of about 9.8% more than in 2009. The average room charges was $212 recording an increase of 12.2%, on the other hand the average income per available room reached at $182 registering an increase of about 26.6% than on 2009. From all these statistics, we can note that in 2009, the overall performance was quite bad. This was attributed to the global economic crisis that was encountered in 2008 (Kumar, 2009: 1). The table below shows the visitors arrival and the percentage change in 9-year period. (yoursingapore.com, 2011:35-41) Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Tourist arrivals 6,127291 8,328720 8,943029 9,751141 10,284545 10,116054 9,682690 11,641700 13,171,303 %change -19.04 35.92 7.4 9.0 5.5 -1.6 -4.3 20.2 13.1 The table below shows visitors arrival top markets for 5-year period Year/ Country 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Indonesia 1,962,055 1,765,429 1,745,330 2,305,149 2,592,222 China 1,113,956 1,078,742 936,747 1,171,337 1,577,522 Malaysia 645,774 647,480 764,309 1,036,918 1,140,935 Australia 768,490 833,156 830,299 880,486 956,039 Japan 594,514 571,040 489,987 528,817 656,417 India 748,728 778,303 725,624 828,903 868,991 Factors enabling STB good performance The attraction of many tourists in Singapore is attributed to the cultural diversification of the various ethnic units that live in this country. Singapore’s culture reflects; its colonial history, Chinese, Indian, Malay and Arabic cultural ethnicities (Solidiance, 2008:1). All these have been blended into the Singapore’s native culture and the resulting society is quite metropolitan. Every ethnic group has spiced up every social aspect in this country and visitors from foreign nations tend to enjoy a variety of cultural and social setting. Anybody from the neighboring regions easily feels at home when he happens to visit Singapore. Therefore, NATAS has taken the opportunity of cultural diversity endowment to maximize the economic benefits this country can earn through tourism industry. Singapore’s climatically conditions are environmentally friendly. It is located in tropical climatic regions. It has a tropical rain forest climate without distinct seasons; the rains are abundant. The temperatures range from 23 to 32 degrees Celsius. The humidity, pressure and other aspects of weather are average (Johnson, 2010: 1). These climatic aspects are friendly to both the natives and the visitors. This enables this small country to receive a steady stream of tourists throughout the year unlike other countries, which receives tourist at a particular time of the year. Therefore, STB capitalize on the friendly climatic environment to exploit fully in this industry. In relation to the good climatic conditions, the geographical location of this country is also another big blessing in enhancement of the tourism industry. It lies about 137 kilometers north of the equator; it is a Southeast Asia city-state. It is an island country composed of 63 islands neighboring to Malaysia in the northern part and Indonesia in the Southern part. It is strategically positioned in that the people from both Indonesia and Malaysia access it easily (Johnson, 2010: 1). These islands are in pacific oceans, a fact that makes it easily linked to the outside world. In its strategic plan, STB has considered this as a comparative advantage over other countries’ tourism industry. Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy; its economy is known to be among the freest in the world. Besides being free, it is quite innovative, very competitive hence it is an economy that is business friendly; it is a highly urbanized country. In 2011, Singapore was ranked to be the second freest economy globally; moreover, it is known to be one of the less corrupt countries in the world. All these good characteristics of Singapore’s economy lay a good ground for tourism industry in this Southeast Asian country. These conditions enable STB to draw credible tourism policies, set target and strive to implement them as planned. This is why it is one of the best marketing destination organizations all over the world. Another condition that enables Singapore to reap well from the tourism industry is that its foreign policy is directed towards maintaining a secure surrounding in the Southeast part of Asia and the neighboring territories. (Stb.gov.sg, 2011:1). This foreign policy is based on the political and economic stability on the region. In fact, Singapore has a diplomatic relation with more than 175 other sovereign states. In addition, this country is ranked to be one of the world lowest crime rates. Political stability and secure environment encourages foreigners to consider it to be a tourist destination. Long-term stable political system and security has made STB to exploit the full potential of this country. Lastly, nature has endowed Singapore with numerous tourists’ attraction sites. We have both natural and manmade sites for example as mentioned earlier, Singapore is a state, which is highly urbanized (Stb.gov.sg, 2012:1). The towns are dominated with giant-story shopping malls, luxurious hotels, big restaurants and casinos. These features alone act as good places for those people who want to enjoy the luxurious life outside their home countries. People just visit these urbanized areas to enjoy the social amenities and see the art, architecture and the infrastructure setting of this highly modernized nation. Some natural tourists’ sites include Singapore zoo, night safari, zoological bird parks, integrated resorts, marina bay sands etc. Therefore, a variety of tourist attraction sites is the main factor that has made this small country to thrive well in tourism industry. Strategies to catch the attention of India tourist Singapore tourism board has embarked on a serious campaign to attract the large Indian market. One of the first strategy it has adopted to accomplish this is recognizing the unique, evolving needs of the Indian market (Stb.gov.sg, 2012:1). Through many years of experience and market engagement with the Indian visitors, the board has had a more understanding of the market and noted the trends in the travel habits. The board has observed the needs the Indian travelers plan for their leisure retreats (Solidiance, 2008:1). By doing this, the board wanted to put in place the appropriate conditions for its customers so that when they visit, they get all the satisfaction they deserve. This would make them to come back and they would encourage others to come to Singapore. Therefore, identifying your customer’s needs and expectation is very much important to any business firm. Secondly, the board has adopted quality and enriching experiences for Indian travelers. Campaigns have been branded some names, which appeal to the Indian travelers, for example, we have a campaign that was launched in Indian cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. One of the campaigns was branded, “the holiday you will take home with you” (Stb.gov.sg, 2012:1). The main core of the campaign touches on the four pillars that enrich experiences. These pillars are; family fan, Romance, culinary and active life style. Visitors are exposed to wider activities such as swimming with dolphins, attending to cooking classes and even learning new skills such as skydiving (Stb.gov.sg, 2012:1). The enriching experiences resonate with the adventurous tastes and preferences of the Indian visitors thus, offering a more experiential and a more engaging journey of discovery. Singapore has the capacity to cater for this because it has a more diverse of rich culinary due to its cultural diversity. Thirdly, the board has also launched strategic collaboration between it and the main specialized travel partners in India (Yoursingapore.com, 2011:23). This co-create and at the same time offer travel packages in the four pillars of experience enrichment. The unique partnership between India travelling partners and Singapore tourism board offers the Indian travelers with enriching experiences. This partnership also has enhanced diverse customer service by the Singaporeans. We have strategic partnership projects initiated by the board such as Singapore travel card and STB- China union-pay (Johnson, 2010:1). These projects heightened the publicity of Singapore’s’ attracting life style and scenes hence earning attention from the Chinese social media and other visitors from different countries. Singapore tourism board led the national effort to display Singapore at the Shanghai world expo. All these are just strategies to attract visitors to come to the country. STB has focused its campaign on the destination brand shifting from the old “uniquely Singapore” to “yoursingapore” (Johnson, 2010:1). The main aim of this strategy is to place the tourists in this country at core and building on its strength as a tourism potential destination. This is also meant to empower visitors to personalize their own experience of Singapore about what they like or their tastes and preferences. Changing the brand name is one of the strategies used by business firms to woe the customers that the new products are better than the previous ones Moreover, changing the brand name aims to erase the negative attitudes the customers had develop about the products. A new name implies new products or service and new products are believed to be always of quality. The campaign has focused on innovation to ensure that the tourism industry has been spiced up with unique features that could not be found anywhere. The campaign also launched its websites to reach the large population of India. The website is “www. yoursingapore.com/the holiday you take home with you” (Johnson, 2010:1). This website provided all the relevant information concerning tourism activities in Singapore. One could find the best sites he/she can visit whenever he gets in Singapore, one could find the kind of meals offered in the tourists hotels, even one could compare the rates paid in hotel rooms in various parts of country. Moreover, on this websites, one can find out the sports ground and entertainment places before he/she land in this country (Stb.gov.sg, 2011:1). Therefore, this website carries all the information that the tourists would want to know before making a decision to visit. Another strategy, which Singapore tourism board is using to boost tourism industry, is advising the investors to build well-designed and luxurious hotels and restaurants (Yoursingapore.com, 2011:41). Many new hotels have been put-up and the structural designs of these hotels are very amazing, there is a lot of creativity and diversity in their designs a fact, which leaves the visitors more entertained. Therefore, good architectural designs of the infrastructures in Singapore is one of the strategies the tourism board has adopted to elevate the tourism sector in this country. Some of the amazing structures are; the Fullerton bay hotel, universal studios Singapore, sands sky park located at marina park, streets of Chinatown, little India and orchard street. (Stb.gov.sg, 2012:1). These are among the awesome sites that make the visitors in Singapore enjoy most. Conclusion Tourism industry in Singapore is backbone of the Singapore’s economy. The industry has grown steadily over the years and it has earned a lot of revenue to the country. Singapore Tourism Board (STB) coordinates all the activities in this industry; this board has many strategies, which is applying to uplift the standards of this sector in this country. Singapore’s plans are that the tourism industry through the ministry of trade has ambitious plans to attract more than 17 million tourists per year; this will help to generate $30 billion in tourism revenue by the year 2015 (Solidiance, 2011:1). This is a well-drafted plan and every stakeholder is working towards attaining this goal. The skyscrapers in the cities and along the streets are to be lighted with lights of different colors to make the cities more brilliant especially at nighttime. This is a strategy to make the cities to be more bright, beautiful and appealing to the visitors. Bibliographic references Johnson, Bramweli. (2010). SingaporeTourim industry empowers visitors with yoursingapore. Amazon Publishers. New York City. Kumar Senthil. (2009). Singapore’s tourism industry plummets amid global economic downturn. Amazon Publishers. New York City. Solidiance. (2008). Asia marketing and innovation strategy-www.innovationcorner.com. Accessed on web. 12th Aug 2012. Retrieved from http://dduhamel.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/turning-singapore-into-an-innovative-tourism-hub/ Stb.gov.sg. (2011). STB Unveils differentiated marketing campaigns. Accessed on web. 12th Aug 2012. Retrieved from https://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/new/new03a.asp?id=12863 Stb.gov.sg. (2012). Singapore Tourism board 9STB) Launches New Marketing Campaign for India-“The holiday you take home with you”. Accessed on web. 12th Aug 2012. Retrieved from https://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/new/new03a.asp?id=13043 Yoursingapore.com. (2011). Singapore tourism board-Annual report. Cambridge University/ Read More