A critical comparison of tourism policies of Hong Kong and Singapore — an avenue to mutual learning

This study examines how mutual learning can potentially enhance the destination competitiveness and sustainability of Hong Kong and Singapore. By comparing the recent tourism policies of the two city states, and by interviewing key government officials, major industrial players, academic experts and representatives of international tourism organisations, it was found that both governments can learn from each other in various aspects. The Hong Kong government can learn from its Singapore counterpart the recognition and proactive support it provides to the industry, its visionary leadership, and its eagerness to learn. At the same time, the Singapore government can learn from Hong Kong in promoting entrepreneurship within the tourism industry. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism flows between India and Singapore

The tourism industry has become increasingly important as a source of revenue and employment for countries in Southeast Asia. Within the Southeast Asian region, intraregional travel has also seen an upsurge since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. More attention is also being paid to attract other Asian tourists from China, India, Japan and South Korea to the region. Competition to be tourism hubs in the region has seen countries such as Singapore developing an array of incentives to entice inbound foreign tourists to its shores. The aim of this paper is to examine the growing importance of India as a source of inbound tourists for countries in Southeast Asia and in particular Singapore. India is an apt case study because of its long historical and cultural links with the region. Another main motivation for examining inbound tourists from India is India's engagement with the Southeast Asian region through its ‘Look East’ policy. Following from its economic reforms and liberalisation of 1991, India has sought to strengthen economic links with ASEAN member states through a range of economic sectors including tourism. The 1991 Indian economic liberalisation has also created an upsurge of Indian business travellers who are exploring investment and business opportunities in the Southeast Asian region. With India's economic liberalisation of 1991, an expanding middle class has come to view foreign travel as a necessity. In turn, ASEAN member states, such as Singapore in particular, which is heavily dependent on its services sector, including tourism, for revenue, have chosen to regionalise its tourism operations by collaborating and investing in projects in India to woo more Indian tourists. Competition in the tourism sector among ASEAN countries has increased the urgency for Singapore to reinvent itself to attract foreign tourists and implement a number of initiatives to maintain its share of the tourism market. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Singapore Gold Circle: Perceptions of local customers of travel agencies

The Singapore Tourism Board has created an ambitious service quality programme, the Singapore Gold Circle (SGC), for the local tourism industry. To date, the Board has made the programme available to the retail, travel agent and tour operator, and spa sectors. This study looks at the SGC to determine, from a travel consumer perspective and with a focus on the travel agency sector, the value and effectiveness of the programme. In addition to the value of the findings to the local tourism community, if successful, such a programme may serve as a blueprint for other national tourism organisations or regional associations seeking to raise the quality of their product. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From hub to tourist destination – An explorative study of Singapore and Dubai's aviation-based transformation

The growth of air transport networks and deregulation have allowed small, low-populated places like Singapore and Dubai to become major international tourism destinations. Both have used tightly combined airline, airport and tourism strategies to help achieve this. Here we analyse developments in Singapore and Dubai by examining interactions between their airlines, airports, governments and tourism authorities, and how integrated management strategies leveraged their aviation traffic hubs to develop tourism destinations.     

Impacts of the Global Economic Crisis on Cyprus Tourism and Policy Responses

This study examines the impacts of the global economic crisis on Cyprus tourism and the pertinent policy responses. A qualitative approach was adopted by conducting eight semi‐structured interviews with tourism authorities and suppliers/professionals. Findings indicated the main impacts of the crisis on Cypriot tourism: lack of competitiveness, decreased visitation/revenues, inadequate quality and escalated pricing. Furthermore, findings identify three types of policy measures: (i) immediate response measures; (ii) foreign investment in tourism; and (iii) diversification of the tourism product and quality improvement. The study highlights the need for Cyprus to develop a comprehensive tourism planning framework. It is suggested that crisis plans of small island states should be developed upon a holistic framework that leverages their destination capitals. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maintaining competitiveness of aviation hub: Empirical evidence of visitors to China via Hong Kong by air transport

Prior studies have not extensively researched and explored the key determinants (aviation and tourism attributes) that could affect Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a transit hub for international visitors using Hong Kong as a stopover to Chinese cities when travelling by air. This study adds to that knowledge to empirically investigate Hong Kong’s eight major tourist source markets (Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the US), and also provides an insight to policy-makers in Hong Kong to help them understand the factors that influence Hong Kong’s aviation hub competitiveness and tourism development. The findings of the study suggest that increased air transport capacity from foreign countries and Hong Kong to China, trade volumes between China and its trading partners, air transport costs, and the global financial crisis are the key factors affecting the number of visitors to China by air passing through Hong Kong as their preferred stopover. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Tourism and the Southeast Asian Crises of 1997 and 1998: A View from Singapore

Singapore has historically stood out as an economic anomaly among countries in the developing world.Its per capita income was higher than most industrialised countries, its government was relatively uncorrupt, and despite the economic difficulties experienced throughout Asia starting in 1997,it was still rated as one of the safest places in the world for investments. Starting in 1997 and extending through 1998, Singapore was hit by three major crises: the currency turmoil affecting its neighbours (especially Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia); the El Niño-driven forest fires on Borneo and Sumatra that filled Singapore’s air with brown smoke; and the political and social crises in Malaysia and Indonesia. These three crises brought international, intra-regional and domestic tourism in Southeast Asia to a near stand still. Singapore received some benefits from these problems as currency from neighbouring countries flew into Singapore in search of a safe haven, thereby supporting the Singapore dollar, and ethnic Chinese and others flew to Singapore to escape both the choking smoke from forest fires and the political unrest in Indonesia, and filled Singapore’s hotels. Singapore weathered the varied crises quite well, and ultimately Singapore may emerge in an even stronger position as the economic powerhouse of Southeast Asia.     

Tourism Perspectives of the Asian Financial Crisis: Lessons for the Future

This paper reviews the causes of the Asian financial crisis,the implications for tourism, and identifies salient lessons that may be employed in dealing with future crises. Written just after the conclusion of the financial crisis, the paper finds that the crisis did not have as great an impact on tourism in East Asia as first feared and observes that tourism may be more resilient to crises than previously anticipated. The paper also notes that the tourism literature has been largely silent on the impact of the crisis and discusses the need for greater analysis of economic issues.     

Tourism,health and income in Singapore

This paper employs Granger causality test to investigate the long‐run and the short‐run dynamic interactions among tourism, economic development and health care development in Singapore. The test reveals that there is long‐run unidirectional Granger causality from health care development to economic development and from tourism to economic development. Both health care and tourism have positive effects on economic development in the long run. In the short run, there is a unidirectional Granger causality from economic development to health care development and a bidirectional causality between health care development and tourism. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Institutions,research and development: tourism and the Asian financial crisis

This report examines the repercussions of the Asian financial crisis on regional institutions and on tourism research and development. It is concluded that the importance of regional institutions for the provision of quality information, research and development will continue to grow. In the short term the crisis has lessened the commitment of key intraregional and national institutions to tourism research and development activity, although some useful collaboration between countries within the region has been evident. Asia should re‐emerge as the world's fastest growing tourism region, provided that the countries most affected by the Asian financial crisis do not impose restrictions on tourist movements or turn away from their long‐term commitment to strategies underpinned by research and development. The move by Pacific Asia Travel Association from San Francisco to Bangkok is identified as an important symbol of the role that regional institutions will continue to play in tourism research and development. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can stopovers be induced to revisit transit hubs as stayovers? A new perspective on the relationship between air transportation and tourism

This research examines the potential of transit hubs and affiliated airlines to stimulate future stayover visits by stopover passengers, thereby securing new market opportunities for the host destination and a new relationship between the transportation and tourism sectors. Data were obtained from 694 stopovers who transited with Singapore Airlines through Singapore Changi International Airport but had no prior stayover visit. ‘High influence’, ‘low influence’ and ‘selected influence’ clusters indicated how nine selected services and facilities differentially stimulated their interest to revisit Singapore. Especially influential are generic services such as the Singapore Girl service style, and specific facilities such as the airport Butterfly Garden. These therefore no longer situate as simple facilities that only provide utilitarian transport services for passengers; occupying the blurred boundaries between the transit and destination regions, they frame Singapore's hub airport and national carrier as a type of ‘quasi-destination’. Appropriate strategic considerations are recommended to maximise their conversion potential.     

Short-term Perturbations and Tourism Effects: The Case of SARS in China

The 2003 SARS epidemic created a significant negative impact on tourism development in China. This paper reviews the effects on tourism of different short-term crises, analyses the effects of SARS and explores the possibility of tourism businesses being buffered from such short-term crisis and the possible new motivations derived from the crisis. Tourism’s lack of resistance but high resilience to short term crises provides tourism and regional planning challenges. These characteristics suggest diversification and partnerships can minimise community vulnerability to crises and rapid economic recovery is possible based on tourism’s resilient nature.     

Sustainable Tourism or Sustainable Development? Financial Crisis,Ecotourism, and the 'Amazing Thailand' Campaign

Although the issues of sustainable tourism and sustainable development are receiving increasing attention from tourists, government planners and scholars, few studies have examined their overlap, tensions and complex linkages in practice. In southern Thailand, the sustainability of tourism, defined as the ongoing growth and survival of the tourism industry, has compromised the ecological sustainability of key tourism destinations sites. The recent financial crisis has forced the Thai government to sacrifice long-term sustainability for the sake of quick, and desperately needed foreign exchange. The 'Amazing Thailand' promotional campaign, which aims to attract 17 million tourists over 1998 and 1999, promises to exacerbate further the environmental degradation of tourism destinations in southern Thailand by pushing for enhanced tourist numbers. Ironically, by changing the composition of tourist arrivals (and in particular, attracting more European and North American tourists) the currency devaluations associated with the Asian financial crisis may simultaneously boost demand for nature-based tourist activities in southern Thailand while also adding stress to ecologically deteriorating destinations.     

Preferred shopping destination: Hong Kong versus Singapore

Visitor shopping is an important contributor to the economy of Hong Kong as it accounts for more than half the total visitors' expenditure. Owing to its significance, and strong competition from Singapore, Hong Kong must re‐examine the city's attraction to shoppers. The tourism and retail industries of Hong Kong must formulate effective strategies to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the shopping environment in both cities. This study surveys 309 international visitors about their shopping expectations and perceptions of Hong Kong and Singapore in 15 attributes. Results were analysed by SPSS software (Statistical Package for Social Science) using the techniques of frequencies and paired t‐tests. Singapore outperforms Hong Kong notably in many areas, such as language ability, attitude and efficiency of service staff. The findings indicate an urgency for Hong Kong to strive harder. In conclusion, the article provides some recommendations for the city to re‐establish its reputation as the ‘shopping paradise’ of the Asia Pacific region and to meet the challenge of Singapore as the preferred shopping destination. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Systemic crisis,weltschmerz and tourism: meaning without incense during vacations

The present global economic crisis is revealing manifold fissures in the economic/social/value/sense-making system and that inevitably has an effect on people’s psyche, on their beliefs and desires, even on their perception of needs. Many effects of the present situation are symptoms of a broader type of crisis. The economic crisis may have acted as a catalyst for increasing (social, political, and spiritual) awareness, and it could be paradoxically a landmark and a far-reaching impetus to renewal and awakening of humanity, to build a sounder and more sustainable (social, educational, political, and economic) system. At this crossroad, the reappearance in the last decade of the term weltschmerz is not coincidental. Whereas the extent to which the current economic crisis has produced a personal or integral crisis remains to be measured, it is clear that concepts such as meaning or transcendence – to combat meaninglessness and weltschmerz – have become central in the discussion on qualitative implications in tourism. The paper suggests a meaningful learning framework to identify required elements for a particular, desired outcome (coping with the second domain of existential pain/ weltschmerz), whose empirical relevance and practical developments are examined in this piece of research on tourism experience.     

Anatomy of tourism crisis: explaining the effects on tourism of the UK foot and mouth disease epidemics of 1967–68 and 2001 with special reference to media portrayal

This paper studies the UK foot and mouth disease (FMD) epidemics of 1967–68 and 2001. It briefly analyses the characteristics of each outbreak of disease and the contrasts between them. The paper then assesses the effects on the UK tourism industry from both outbreaks and also focuses on the role of the media in its portrayal of the effects. Data are gleaned from secondary sources such as BBC archives of radio and television programmes, other media such as key newspapers, as well as specialist journals and government reports. The study concludes that the 1967–68 outbreak had only a limited actual effect on tourism (and an even more limited effect as perceived in the media), whereas the 2001 epidemic had a much larger effect — actual and as perceived in the media. It is suggested that there are many explanations for the differences, including the time of the year of the outbreaks, the spatial spread of the disease, the amount of countryside that was deemed to have restricted access and the growth in supply of rural tourism operators. The changed character of news reporting itself created some different effects — the media role in the 2001 crisis was not entirely passive. Indeed, the paper finally stresses that the role of the media is crucial in tackling any future such crisis — the media can be harnessed as a key element of tourism contingency planning. In this respect there is, indeed, much similarity between the 2001 FMD crisis and other current crises worldwide. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adventure Sports and Tourism in the French Mountains: Dynamics of Change and Challenges for Sustainable Development

Despite their historical links, there have always been profound contradictions in the relationship between sport and tourism in France and Europe in terms of behaviour and development models. The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s marked a certain narrowing of this divide, with a gradual blurring of the boundaries between tourism and sport, and an increasing hybridisation of activities and reference models. This change was due on the one hand to the increasing demand for 'active tourism', breaking with the cultural and geographical conformism of conventional holidays and trips, and on the other hand to the appearance of 'leisure sports' held in new esteem following the development of a whole range of new or revived activities (climbing, mountain biking, canyoning, parascending, rafting, hydrospeed), which no longer resisted 'touristification.' In this process, the crisis which affected winter sports in France during the second half of the 1980s played a far from negligible role by stimulating a systematic search for diversification in the supply of tourism 'products', with respect both to seasonal aspects and to the target clientele and activities. Thus, while a crisis was shaking the foundations, the renewal in the supply of leisure sports was contributing to a revival of mountain tourism, particularly in the summer. The result of this upheaval was that leisure sports, which until then had been largely marginal to tourism, were placed at the very centre of the touristic system.     

Regionlisation and Tourism: The Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle

The paper considers growth triangles as a vehicle for regional development in general, and tourism development in particular, using the example of the Indonesia-Malaysia- Singapore Growth Triangle (IMS GT). The concept of growth triangles is explained within the context of regionalisation and the role of tourism is highlighted, followed by a discussion of the case selected and progress achieved to date. The analysis reveals that the potential of the IMS GT in tourism terms has yet to be realised, with practical difficulties and political uncertainties inhibiting progress. Growth triangles thus appear a viable option for governments to adopt in pursuit of certain broad economic objectives, but there are several constraints in operation and difficulties to overcome in terms of their contribution to tourism. Problems include ensuring the support of public and private sectors, the maintenance of good relations amongst participating states, the effect of instability, and securing cooperation amongst countries and institutions which are more accustomed to competition as tourist destinations.     

High unemployment and tourism participation*

This paper analyses individual tourism participation decisions during a worldwide economic downturn. Given the nature of tourism services, a reduction in habitual consumption is highly probable during an economic crisis. Since the unemployment rate is strongly correlated with the economic cycle, the hypothesis that is discussed concerns whether residents’ decision to participate in tourism is affected by their region's level of unemployment. More specifically, it is suggested that unemployment not only affects the tourism participation decision of those who are out-of-work, but that aggregate unemployment (measured as the region's unemployment rate) also has a bearing on such decisions made by individuals in general. The results that were obtained for a set of EU countries show that the unemployment level has a positive effect on the probability of not going on holidays. This effect emerges when there is an unemployment rate of over 10%.     

The impact of rhino poaching on tourist experiences and future visitation to National Parks in South Africa

Wildlife tourism attracts substantial numbers of tourists worldwide with Africa as the major wildlife viewing destination earning the bulk of its tourism revenue from such tourism. Iconic animals, such as the rhino, are major attractions for tourists to South Africa who holds approximately 80% of the World’s rhino population. However, the rapid increase in rhino poaching activities has reached a crisis point and should the rate of poaching continue to increase Africa’s remaining rhino population will become extinct in the wild within 20 years. How this affects tourists and tourism is still largely unknown. This study shows evidence that rhino poaching and anti-poaching measures do impact tourism in the short term and could affect future visitation to Parks.