Tourism in Singapore - Case Study Example

xxxxx No. xxxxx TOURSIM IN SINGAPORE ABC of XYZ Department of LMN 08 May, Table of Contents Contents Page No Introduction 03 Objectives and Questions of Study 04 Significance of the Study 04 Literature Review 04 (a) Medical Tourism in Singapore 05 (b) Government Support and Political Stability 06 (c) Small Country 06 (d) Diversified Culture 06 (e) Transit Flights 06 (f) Corruption and Security 07 (g) English as official Language 07 (h) Accommodation Sector 07 Research Design 07 Methodology 08 (a) Primary Research 08 (b) Secondary Research 09 (c) Scope 09 Data Sources and Data Analysis 10 Validity and Coherence 11 Conclusions and Recommendations 11 References 13 Introduction Singapore, officially Republic of Singapore, is famous and popular amongst the tourists throughout the world as a global hub for tourism and trade. Tourism is an important aspect of Singapore’s official trade strategy and the government has a special emphasis on this important policy as it is one of the main sources to maintain the foreign cash flow within the country. Being one of the most beautiful and cleanest places in the world, Singapore attracts millions of visitors each year. It is one of the favorite tourist destinations in Asia Pacific region. Having environmental friendly policies and English as the official language, the tourists have a comfortable and easier environment to enjoy their visit. There are number of factors which attract the tourists across the globe toward this country. These factors include cultural diversity of the country, beautiful landscape, combination of tradition and modernity of cultures, high standard of living, economic stability, effective law and order management, cleanliness, pollution-free environment, religious and ethnic tolerance towards all, modern infrastructure and high-end transportation. Singapore city was one of the favorite destinations in tourism industry in 2009 and listed amongst the top eight cities to be visited in 2009 (Info Hostels, 2009). Cities (Country) Number of visitors Paris (France) 15.6 millions London (United Kingdom) 14.8 millions Bangkok (Thailand) 10.84 millions Singapore (Singapore) 10.10 millions New York(United States) 09.5 millions Hong Kong (China) 7.94 millions Istanbul (Turkey) 7.05 millions Dubai (UAE) 6.9 millions (Source: Info Hostels, 2009) Objectives and Questions of Study The main objective of this research is to highlight the fundamentals of tourism in Singapore and to determine the effective role of tourism in the economy of the country. In order to achieve these objectives, following questions will be investigated. (a) What are the current tourism attractions in Singapore and what is the government strategy with respect to a place to give it a status of tourist spot? (b) What are the government tourism strategies through which tourisms spots are evaluated in terms of their effectiveness? (c) Who are responsible for tourism industry in Singapore and what is their role and task? (d) How Singapore can achieve excellence and leading position in this sector as compared to other leading tourism countries of Europe and United States? (e) How Singapore government can promote tourism industry in the country in future? What should be the recommendations for the Singapore government to face current global challenges in terms of tourism industry? Significance of the Study A huge, extensive, coherent, and data-based research in the field of tourism in Singapore will make it possible for new researchers to explore new segments of this industry and its implications on the country. The research analysis will provide a base for the subsequent researchers to evaluate the application of tourism in corporate area of Singapore. Further, new milestones for business experts of Singapore will be set to overcome the future challenges with respect to the country’s geographical location, political reputation, and limitations. Literature Review Singapore is a multinational city that has a significant place in international business and trade competition. Singapore consists of diverse cultures with a population of about 5 million (http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/latestdata.html). About 58% of the population are Singaporeans while rest are foreigners i.e. the 6th highest percentage of foreigners in the world. Singapore is also the second most compactly inhabited country after Monaco (wikipedia.com). Politically, Singapore runs under a parliamentary republic that consists of different constituencies. Democracy is the national political system of the country (CIA - The World Fact-book, 2010) but according to Democracy Index it is ranked as hybrid regime because Peoples Action Party (PAP) has dominated the political process and won every election since 1959 with some sort of controversial results. Singapore consists of 63 islands. Since 1960s, Singapore has grown its area from 581.5 km² to 704 km² due to its on-going reclamation projects. About 23% area of Singapore consists of forests and natural reservoirs and according to Köppen Climate Classification; Singapore is located in the region of Tropical Rainforest Climate where pressure, temperature, humidity and rainfall almost remain constant throughout the year. (a) Medical Tourism in Singapore Medical tourism means traveling across the country for the purposes of health care. Singapore has been a major destination for people due to its excellent medical facilities. It consists of sub-industries like dental tourism and fertility tourism. People mainly travel to Singapore for surgeries and major operations or to get better medical facilities because their countries lack the medical facilities. Presently approximately 200,000 people visit the country for medical purpose and government has a target to facilitate one million foreign patients annually by the end of 2012. This target will generate $ 3 billion revenue along with 13,000 new jobs as well (Dogra, 2005). (b) Government Support and Political Stability The tourism industry of Singapore has a great support from Singaporean government. The government policies are very supportive for the tourism industry (Market Overview, 2010). The government policies have corresponded very well to the changing global conditions (Yeoh et al, 2001). Further, Singapore is a politically stable country and the leadership is working efficiently to make it a leading tourist destination. (c) Small Country Being a small country, it attracts a large number of tourists because people can visit the country in a short time. If tourists have a short time, they plan a vacation to Singapore which will provide them with diverse cultures, natural beauty and historical places all in one place. Singapore markets itself as a city-state being an energetic and modern with a unique multicultural society (Market Overview, 2010). The country has an excellent infrastructure to support the tourism industry in the small area of operations. The other side of the picture depicts a bit dark area as well. Due to geographical limitations, Singapore cannot compete with countries like Malaysia and Thailand which provide a range of natural attractions to the tourists (Market Overview, 2010). (d) Diversified Culture Almost 42% of populations of Singapore comprises of foreigners that decorates the country with a diversified culture having Chinese, Malay, Indians, Australians, and Arabic ethnicities. This makes Singapore a great place for tourists due to different festivals held in Singapore. (e) Transit Flights Singapore is a very well situated country and is the aviation hub for many long-haul flights. People traveling in long-haul flight usually prefer to visit Singapore if there is a transit. It increases the number of visitors greatly because of high rate of air traffic at Singapore Changi Airport that has the connection with 81 airlines to 185 cities of 58 countries. The airport is ranked as one of the best airports of the world and was ranked first by Skytrax in 2006 (Airport of the year result, 2006). Singapore airport has a train at the airport which after showing the whole Singapore drops the tourists back to airport in very little time. (f) Corruption and Security According to Transparency International, Singapore is least corrupt country in Asia. There are rarely situation of strikes and protests. Further, there are no signs of terrorism in the country. (g) English as official Language Due to its diverse population, English is the official language in Singapore. This makes it easier for the tourists to communicate with the local population. (h) Accommodation Sector Accommodation sector does not have the capacity, variety and quality to accommodate such large number of tourists. The accommodation sector of Singapore needs to be expanded to meet the growing needs of tourists (Market Overview, 2010). Research Design The research will be highly based on exploratory and qualitative methods. The adoption of exploratory approach is based on its all-round nature. It involves qualitative and quantitative methods of research simultaneously. At times only qualitative method of research will be used because of several facts. Quantitative approach is about the verification of a hypothesis while qualitative approach does not merely involve when and where, rather it deals with what, how and why of decision making (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Since the literature review is not huge enough about the tourism industry of Singapore and its productivity for the country, therefore the qualitative approach is the best because of nature of the topic. One more reason of adopting this technique is its best role with respect to human nature. The complexities, values, beliefs, and attitude of human nature are such aspects that have significant impact on the success of tourism in a country. Methodology At the start of project, the researcher will thoroughly go through the relevant literature review. Mostly, the guiding material and research will be arranged according to Kolbs model of experiential learning based on four elements i.e. concrete experience, observation and reflection, formations of abstract concepts and testing of these concepts in new situations (Kolb, 1984). Both the primary and secondary sources will be used. (a) Primary Research First of all, a detailed survey will be carried out at different tourist attractions in Singapore. The geographical features, causes of popularity, facility arrangements, and economic turnover of these places will be monitored. In primary research, the researcher will use informal interviews with the higher authorities and employees of tourism department of Singapore, residents and businessmen involved at different tourism hotels, resorts or attractions. Foreign tourists will be specifically focused to conduct informal interviews. The purpose of these informal and spontaneous interviews is to eliminate the prejudices that could take place between the researcher and the respondents. A special emphasis will be held on the interaction between the local public and the foreign tourists at the public places, hotels and tourism spots. Singapore tourism department and other agencies conduct frequent seminars to familiarize the foreign tourists with their facilities and the general tourism environment inside the country. The researcher will attend these seminars personally and bring the observations as primary research in the study. A detailed descriptive analysis will be made from the response of interviews. The researcher will apply statistical modes of calculations such as weighted mean and percentage to establish strong results. It will enable the researcher and readers to understand how Singapore is performing and how it can improve its tourism sector and beat the other leading nations in this field. (b) Secondary Research The political, cultural, economic and demographic aspects of Singapore as well as strengths and weaknesses of tourism sector of Singapore will be studied through a comprehensive literature review. The library books, online books and journals, magazines, country statistics and electronic and print media will be used as the source of secondary research. Relevant case studies and dissertations will also be consulted from the university platform as well as from the internet. The facts and figures will be collected and a qualitative trend will be made through a secondary data analysis in terms of recent years within Singapore and a brief comparison will be established with other leading tourism countries. At the end, the researcher will extort the most valuable, reliable and relevant information from the data and then the findings will be presented in the literature review section of the research paper. (c) Scope Timeframe of each activity will be organized as listed below. As a whole the research will take about 3.5 months (100 days) till its completion and final submission. Activity Timeframe Preparation of research proposal 03 - 06 June, 2010 Literature Review 07 – 28 June Analysis of Literature Review 29 June – 03 July Visit to Singapore (Survey of famous attractions) 04 July – 18 July Analysis of survey 19 July – 23 July Informal interviews 24 July – 05 Aug Observations from Seminars 06 Aug – 16 Aug Analysis of interviews and field observations 17 Aug – 23 Aug Overall analysis of whole research 24 Aug – 31 Aug Completion of Research Project 01 Sep – 06 Sep Presentation 10 Sep Submission of Final Report 13 Sep Data Sources and Data Analysis The current facts and figures of tourism in Singapore, observations made through seminars, informal interviews, and collected data through books, journals, magazines or other sources will be analyzed and then will be compared with the existing practices of leading European and American tourism countries. An exploratory and qualitative based research typically requires different sort of information gathering tools e.g. physical observation, field notes, journals, informal and structured interviews, and analysis of related literature (Marshall and Rossman, 1998). The researcher will also emphasize to carry out the whole proceedings by taking different qualitative approaches into consideration which will include Grounded Theory, Ethnographic Research, Critical Social Research, and Philosophical Research. After collecting the whole material about the topic as tourism in Singapore, the data and interview response will be analyzed with respect to existing literature and the practices of modern countries along with statistically computer based analysis. Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) will be applied that assists in the analysis process and in constructing of accurate and transparent results (Gibbs, 2002). The collected data based on both observations and literature will be analyzed by putting it into interpretive, coding and recursive abstraction techniques. The primary research observations will be analyzed through interpretive technique and will be documented in structured form. Literature based data will be analyzed by coding technique while the datasets consisting of statistics will be evaluated through recursive abstraction technique. Validity and Coherence The validity of the research is the focal point of the whole effort. It actually explains whether or not you have achieved your task. In other words it deals with the suitability of the methodology to the research. According to Mason (1996), you must ask yourself “how well matched is the logic of the method to the kinds of research questions you are asking and the kind of social explanation you are intending to develop"(p.147). The validity of research will be established through any of different ways e.g. member check, peer analysis, negative analysis, and conformability etc (Guba & Lincoln, 1985). The suggested recommendations in tourism industry of Singapore will be analyzed and their effectiveness will be validated on the basis of above stated techniques. Conclusions and Recommendations The tourism industry of Singapore has a great potential to be the favorite tourist destinations. It is a hub of aviation and tourism especially for Southeast Asian countries. A considerable amount of its economic revenue is generated through tourism industry. The Singapore tourism board should take steps in developing Singapore further by constructing more and more attractive places for the tourists. In order to enhance its revenue and to beat the other nations, the research will conclude few recommendations which will be logically placed in the literature review section. (a) Singapore can increase the number of visitors by the liberalization of aviation sector and by proliferation of the low cost carrier. Young people and families who travel frequently must be attracted by the cheaper flights. Similarly, tourists and professionals should be entertained in the same way. (b) A development strategy is needed at government level to develop Singapore into a world class resort destination. Providing facilities like spa, attractive beaches, and facilitated accommodations will improve the standards of tourism industry. (c) Young generation should be the special target market by providing facilities like gaming, conventions, entertainment, sports, and luxury hotels etc. (Market Overview, 2010). Moreover, Singapore can grab the huge share of tourism industry from its major competitors i.e. Hong Kong’s terminal by offering attractive cruise packages, honey moon packages and designing holidays for young couples. (d) Singapore has world class universities, by offering extensive student exchange program it can increase the number of visitors. References Airport of the Year result (2006). Archived from the original on 31 December 2006 http://web.archive.org/web/20061231160516/http://www.worldairportawards.com/Awards-2006/AirportYear-2006.htm. Retrieved 1 June 2006 CIA - The World Fact-book – Singapore, (April, 2010) U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sn.html Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (2005). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd Edition Dogra, S. (2005). Medical tourism boom takes Singapore by storm. India: Express HealthcareManagement.http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20050731/medicaltourism01.shtml. Retrieved 22 April 2010 Gibbs, G.R. (2002). Qualitative Data Analysis: Exploration with Nvivo, Open University Press, Berkshire Guba, E.G. and Lincoln, Y. (1985). Naturalist Inquiry, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/latestdata.html Info Hostels (2009).Most Visited Cities 2009. Retrieved May 2nd 2010, from http://www.infohostels.com/notizia.php?chiave=764 Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Marshall, C., and Rossman, G.B. (1998). Designing Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Mason, J. (1996). Qualitative Researching, London, Sage Market Overview – Hospitality (2010). Singapore Tourism Report, pp. 22-23. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database. Retrieved on May 2nd, 2010, from http://search.ebscohost.com Yeoh, B.A., Ser, T.E., Wang, J., & Wong, T. (2001) Tourism in Singapore: An Overview of Policies and Issues Read More