http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/08/18/singapore.business.reut/index.html
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- If one thinks of Singapore, safe but dull
are likely to come to mind.
But the government is trying to cast off this image by building
casinos and exotic venues to entertain tourists and lure lucrative
business travelers as part of a plan to make the city-state the
venue of choice for international conferences.
Last month, the International Olympic Committee meeting in
Singapore, where London was chosen as host for the 2012 Olympics,
received a few barbs for its televised finale. A British newspaper
said the show scaled new heights of kitsch.
But the event, seen by about one billion people worldwide,
highlighted its ability to stage big business gatherings.
Despite boasting one of the world's top-ranked airports and
impressive convention entrees, industry experts say the country --
which bans the sale of chewing gum and Playboy magazine -- stumbles
when it comes to the fun factor.
"Singapore has the image of being boring and authoritarian. For
business travelers, it's like visiting your parents rather than
going to somewhere fun," said Patrick Wilkerson, Regional Brand and
Business Development Director of ad agency Leo Burnett.
Wilkerson, who has helped neighboring Thailand sell itself to
tourists, said Singapore must overcome its unexciting image if it
wants to attract more business travelers.
Such visitors contributed S$2.4 billion ($1.45 billion) to the
country last year, or 30 percent of total tourism revenue.
Competition is intensifying as other Asian cities boost their
infrastructure -- Singapore has about 36,500 hotel rooms but
Shanghai and Bangkok already have about two times that
number.
Convention and incentive travel is key to the government's plan to
triple tourism revenues to S$30 billion by 2015. Tourism, hit by
the SARS virus outbreak two years ago, is increasingly important
for the tiny island's $110 billion economy as it loses more
manufacturing jobs to low-cost neighbors.
"Whether it's attracting larger events such as the Olympic meeting
or smaller industry conventions, it's all about creating jobs,"
said CIMB-GK Goh Economist Song Seng Wun.
Breaking the mould
Once described as "Disneyland with a death penalty" by science
fiction writer William Gibson, Singapore has taken steps in recent
years to rectify its reputation for being bland, allowing bar-top
dancing and street busking.
Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong told a gathering of
conference operators last month the state was ready to "break the
old mould" to become one of the world's top meeting places.
It is set to legalize casinos and is in the process of picking
developers for two casinos worth an estimated $5 billion.
Singapore, which only lifted a ban on the risque U.S. television
show "Sex and the City" last year, will also soon have its own
branch of Paris's Crazy Horse cabaret, famous for its erotic nude
dance performances.
"We're all human -- we would all like to attend events in places
that have prestige or glamour," said Sophie LeRay, Managing
Director of naseba, a Monaco-based events organizer.
But she added that Singapore's predictability is a strength in
these uncertain times.
While neighboring Thailand and Indonesia have suffered militant
attacks, the city-state has remained unscathed.
"Singapore's drawbacks are the usual cliches that you can't smoke,
can't chew gum and you can't jaywalk here. But once people arrive
here, these cliches disappear," she said.
MICE are key
Singapore was ranked sixth for the number of international meetings
hosted in 2003, after Paris, Vienna, Geneva, Brussels and London
and ahead of Barcelona, Copenhagen, Berlin, Rome and New York,
according the Union of International Associations.
The only Asian destination among the top-ranked cities, Singapore
aims to lure more such gatherings, known in industry jargon as
"MICE" travel -- Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions
-- to its shores and hopes this kind of travel will see average
growth of 15 percent per year in the next decade.
"We want to grow this portion because the MICE visitor spends more
than the average tourist," Minister for Information, Communications
and the Arts, Lee Boon Yang, told Reuters.
MICE visitors made up 26 percent of Singapore's 8.3 million tourist
arrivals last year and the country wants this portion to rise to 35
percent by 2015.
Like other business travelers, MICE visitors typically spend two or
three times more than leisure tourists. On average, business
travelers fork out S$1,500 ($904) to $1,800 per trip, figures from
the Singapore Tourism Board show.
Singapore's reputation for efficiency has attracted a series of
high-profile events, including July's IC meeting, the International
Institute for Strategic Studies' Asia Security Conference in June
and the World Economic Forum in April.
Next September, it will host 16,000 delegates for the six-day
annual meetings of the boards of the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank Group. Larger still will be Asian Aerospace 2006
in February, expected to draw 27,000 visitors.
