Importance Of Tourism Development Through Organizing Events In Singapore (essay).

Events and Festivals in Singapore

Question:

Discuss about the Project For The Singapore Tourism Board.

There are many festivals that play a significant role for the human society and they are being introduced in the society of Human and they are being projected as the display for public and the celebration based on collectivity. This in fact, people having the background of different cultures need to forget about their communal dedications and celebrations (Getz, 2013). By taking into account the nature of the events, the formation of the festivals does not belong to the same period. It is a quite known fact that, exhibitions and trade events take place in the ancient period such as, the historians and authors described the important sport events as an important social gathering where the tourists from the other parts of the world. The events which are the festival types, is said to have existed since the commencement of the middle ages (Getz, 2013).

Events are said to have its source even before the money came into scenario. The events such as Singapore Airshow, Singapore two days festival  is quite an attractive one. People especially from Myanmar, Germany, and Australia visit the festival every year (stb.gov, 2017). Myanmar travelers composed of a greater tourist population and they constitute a greater part of tourism in terms of attending the events (Getz, 2013).  With the arrival of capitalism, the invention of the new products and the development of a new social relations, constructed a way with the versatile development with the growth of the number of events. However, in the era of 20^th century, the growth and development of events and the new economical structure of the society, the increasing in the rate of the purchasing power of the consumers, the birth of the new needs of the customers punctuated by the development of the economy, would reduce the causes of unemployment, which in turn also would influence the growth of economy of that nation. Therefore, in this aspect it is important to go through the importance of the role of development of Tourism through organizing events in Singapore and the ways the region attracts the visitors of other countries all around the world (stb.gov, 2017). The way it is as well influencing the growth of Tourist sector.

Tourism in the country Singapore is regarded as a sector which is developing. Singapore bears the characteristic of a greater potential of tourism which incorporate the attractions in the different aspects of the Country. The sector of Singapore, witnesses an increase in the arrivals of tourism and in the year 2012, the arrivals of the tourist surpassed the mark of one million for the first time (stb.gov, 2017; Teo & Chang, 2012). In the year 2013, the master plan of tourism was being introduced which has sets its target to 7.6 millions of tourists by the year 2020. Singapore is hoping to double the number of tourists of Myanmar and the country saw 105,000 visitors in the year 2015. The Tourism Board of Singapore would launch a two day Singapore festivals which offered a certain number of attractions to welcome the people of Myanmar. The executive Director also said that of the Southeast Asia said that, at least a quarter million of the visitors from Myanmar is needed on the annual basis (stb.gov, 2017).

Tourism in Singapore

The tourism in Singapore is developed mainly by the Government but also at the same time, many corporate enterprises exist, which is catering to a wider range of tourism. Since the year 1992, the government gave boost to the sector of tourism in the country (stb.gov, 2017; Teo & Chang, 2012).

• In the year 2010, 791,506 tourists visited Singapore which and where 2,95,175 foreign tourists specially from Myanmar who are entering the country through Airport of Yangon International (Getz & Page, 2016; Teo & Chang, 2012).
• In the year 2012, there are more than 1 million of the foreign tourists visited the country Singapore and figure is expected to rise to approximately 1.5 million in the year 2013.
• In the year 2013, the number of the foreign arrivals reached to 2.5 million by taking into account the arrivals of both air and overland (stb.gov, 2017; Lee, 2012)).
• In the year 2015, according to the results of Competitiveness report of Travel and Tourism. Singapore ranks 11^th out the 141 countries .

The important things that are needed to be taken care of regarding the visitors to Singapore from Myanmar are

Spending time with family: Travel is taken care of an excellent way to fulfill the needs of the family and relaxing (Board, 2014). In addition to this, travel also gives the benefits of the personal based growth and enrichment. Travelling for the sake of holiday, also indicates the way of shifting from their busy schedule of life and enjoying the free quality time with friends or families (stb.gov, 2017; Teo & Chang, 2012; Hausler, 2012).

Perceiving Singapore as a destination: The visitors from Myanmar in Singapore look for destinations carrying value for the offerings of money. There has to be a limited availability of amount of time and also fixing a suitable time for the other members of family. The families of Myanmar are also looking for a wider activity to explore the unknown in the country Singapore (Board, 2014; Serkin, 2016). Therefore, in this context, it is important the number of attendees from Myanmar who would be coming to join the Singapore Air show in the year 2018 which would take place in Singapore (stb.gov, 2017; Lee, 2012).

Festive events: Attractions of the festive events which would provide extraordinary fun to the people. Singapore provides beautiful fun to the people in the area of Resorts world, Lion City, which is the sole attraction for the people from Myanmar.

According to the events set up by Singapore, it was successful in starting different visitors from Myanmar. In the year 2015, as already mentioned before, there are more than 105,425 visitors. The visitors arrival from the year 2011- 2015 has been increased by +2.8%. For the purpose of Festival and events, the numbers of arrivals in Singapore were 58000 (stb.gov, 2017; Lee, 2012).

The two day Singapore Festival this would be organized by SBT in the coming year. With the creation of events in order to attract the visitors from Myanmar, it is important to note that to make the cultural relations between the countries stronger as well as the bilateral relations about more than 2 lakhs of Myanmar people. Through the organization of events, there was a visa exemption of the people coming from Myanmar to Singapore (stb.gov, 2017). Through the two days Singapore Festival, the SBT is looking forward to attract the Myanmar’s growing income level segment to Singapore. Through these events as well, Singapore also looks forward to rope the celebrities of Myanmar to share their experiences in the garden city in the Two days festival of Singapore (stb.gov, 2017).

Profile of Attendees at Singapore Events

The two days festival of Singapore looks forward to welcome the people of Myanmar to visit the country of Singapore to visit the Lion City (Baggett & Henderson, 2017). The profile attendee of the Singapore festival which was based on the arrival of tourism said that there were

Therefore from the above profile it can be found about the various occupants against the age groups of Myanmar and their visit to Singapore to spend holidays with their family and accordingly their age and occupation are being well enumerated through the profile of antendees (stb.gov, 2017). The table would further talk about the number of different occupants from different professional group. The graph talks about the people who are  coming with either family, friends or alone.

Singapore is a very well known tourist spot all across the globe, and it is of course a known fact that there are several reasons that contribute to the large tourist attractions to this place every year. It can be seen through a SWOT analysis of Singapore in general and Singapore Tourism in particular.

Strengths- In the modern day scenario, customers are looking forward towards innovation and modernization and they have developed a many fold approach towards their needs and demands. This changing pattern in the consumer demand is seen in almost each and every aspect of the industry that is in each and every industrial sector, and tourism is one such sector. It is also a very important sector that plays a major role in the growth and development of the country because tourism is one such area that is highly labor intensive and has a lot of opportunities for not only the tourism industry but the nation as a whole (Mérida et al .,2016).

The modern trend of such that the tourists are in search for several additional facilities other than just the scenic beauty of the place that they are going to. Singapore over the past few years has gained a great significance as a tourist spot because apart from its natural beauty it has opened up a plethora of many new opportunities to the tourists like its blend of cultures and also its great opportunity to start a business (Qiao, Cho & Lee 2016). Thus, it can be understood from this fact that apart from being a tourist spot it is also a good industrial land as well. Apart from this, this country also has top quality labor force, high and advanced level of transparency, a very good location that makes it easily accessible for the top multinational companies from all across the world. Hence, the climate of Singapore can be termed as a investment climate that attracts a huge number of customers with a promise of great business and economic returns. Apart from this, it also provides a safe and sound atmosphere for the tourists to travel freely. It also has recently launched many new tourist attractions like night safaris’, Sentosa etc (Lee, 2013).

SWOT Analysis of Singapore Tourism Industry

Weakness

Though Singapore has been working hard to develop itself in every sphere for attracting more number of visitors but it often faces challenges due to its small size, which results in the less number of visitors due to lack of accommodation. It also has limited amount of resources. In its attempt of giving, more emphasis onto the industrial aspects, it has neglected the natural aspects and there is huge number odf man made tourist spots and the natural site seeing gets hampered (Olsen, 2017).

Opportunities

A great opportunity for Singapore is its recent and massive transformation of the tourism landscape into a promising land with great business and investment opportunities. Over the last ten years, there has been a rapid development in the tourism of Singapore which is evident from its sharp increase in the visitor ship as well as in the doubling of the tourism receipts (Henderson, 2016). Apart from this, Singapore has recently developed a large number of intricately designed tourist spots that gives all the visitors a memorable experience displaying before them the rich cultural heritage and discovery that a city can behold. Singapore is also known as the “world’s easiest place to do business”.  Apart from this, it also has a great potential for medical tourism industry and MICE industries as well. It is indeed a great opportunity for the Growth of Singapore in the long run as it has a great transparency in terms of regulatory, business and economic affairs.

Threats

There are high threats of mimicry. In other words, there are several of researches going on which says that many developing countries will perhaps try to mimic Singapore and its success story. However, learning from such a great story is indeed suggested but learning is totally different from copying or mimicking. Apart from this, there is always the fear of terrorism and other such attacks since it is a land of so many different cultures and the population over there is of mixed backgrounds with their own ideologies, thoughts, desires and complaints and these differences might very easily lead to an unwanted combat or terrorist attack both from within or without the country (Getz & Andersson 2016).

In order to attract the customers that are the tourists, the tourism industries also formulates different strategies for retaining back the customers. One such important strategy is threat of conducting several events and festivals. There are several motives of the tourism company behind conducting such festivals and they are attracting new tourists to the tourist spots in order to increase the tourism receipts and also in order to give a great boost to the total national income of the country and for increasing the total revenue (Blichfeldt & Halkier 2014). While doing this, the tourism department also has to keep in mind that they initiate the development of the local communities as well. One of the important aspects of the tourism industry is also to look after the backward and weak remote local dwellers along with the overall development of the country. One such event that is about to be held in the coming days in Singapore is The Two Days Singapore Festival, which is also a promotional strategic move of the Singapore Tourism Industry. This festival will address several criteria like

• Encouraging the visitors to stay longer
• Adding onto the existing infrastructure and assets
• Making a positive contribution to the society
• Encouraging the growth of a local community capital

The Two Day Singapore Festival will be held at Jurong East, which is a well known tourist attraction of Singapore, richly adorned in gardens, water parks and also several other attractions like shopping, bowling etc. The festival will b e held at this place as it is one among the most widely populated tourist attractions and tourists both from within as well as from outside Singapore assemble there during these two days. The event will be held here so that the message behind this event can be conveyed to a large amount of customers in general and to the targeted customers in particular (Luonila, & Johansson 2015). The event will mainly be focusing on two important areas, one is encouraging the aspiring tourists to involve in opening up new hotels in Singapore that is to start business in the hospitality sector and the other will be to give a boost to the local community particularly the local farmers by encouraging the tourists to start or enter into joining venture business with the food and beverage industries (Presenza & Sheehan 2013). As Singapore over the years has developed itself into a rich economy that beholds the promise of huge business prospect, encouraging the tourists to start new business startups here will be a very lucrative offer.  Traditional advertising will be used for showing the traditional food recopies that will bring the real Singaporean traditional flavor to the customers. The plan of the business and the infrastructure will be displayed at the event through the social media sites and digital advertising. Public relations and publicity will be used to develop interpersonal relationships with the customers, consumer promotions will also be used like giving away free gift hampers and discounts for attending the event and also giving them free samples of the dishes that will be launched in the future food and beverage sector business. This will enable in fulfilling the following criteria

• Attract new visitors and make them stay longer

As the area which is selected for launching this event that is Jurong East, itself is very popular among the tourists, gathering a huge crowd and reaching out to the targeted customers will not be a problem. This fest will include customers from the business fields both the experienced corporate officials as well as the young entrepreneurs will be a part of it, hence reaching to the targeted customers will not be a tough job at all (Yuen,  Cheung & Yuen 2016). This event will explain to the tourists that over the years Singapore has developed into a rich economy and has developed its business to a great extent. It has transparency, good amount of business resources, good infrastructure and every other facility that is needed to carry on a smooth and easy business. Moreover in the last ten years, there has been a sufficient increase in the amount of tourists visiting Singapore, as there are large number of tourists, more hotels are needed tom accommodate them hence, hospitality business is in high demand. So, ideas about starting hotels in Singapore will naturally attract a large number to tourists to stay back and attend the entire event at Singapore.

• Keeping in mind all the attendees of this event, which includes professionals from different domains like business, engineers, food and beverage etc, will naturally open up new arenas of business which will give a boost both to the hospitality sector as well the local community and the rural markets.
• As Singapore suffers from a lack of space and sufficient area of accommodation, construction of new and well furnished hotels will naturally be a good and promising line of business. As it is a known fact that Singapore is well known for its large and imposing hotels and manmade tourist spots, construction of new hotels will naturally add to the already existing infrastructural base of Singapore (Ng, 2015).
• The motives behind this event are not only to give a boost to the infrastructural base but also to the local community as well. As the population of Singapore has an indigenous culture, the food habits of the people also vary according to the culture and they have a great demand for different types of dishes, hence encouraging food and beverage industry by innovating the types of dishes will enhance the business. This event has also decided to help the local community and so it has decided to purchase all the raw materials from the local cultivators thus giving the customers fresh, healthy and natural food on one hand and generating income opportunities for the local cultivators on the other. (Wong, Velasamy & Arshad 2014).

Conclusion

Thereby it can be concluded from this paper that Singapore has developed a lot in the past few years in term of its tourism industry and has also achieved good heights in terms of infrastructure and innovation. The festival that will be arranged by the tourism board of Singapore will also be a strategic move towards the development of the tourism sector and the local community as well.

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