While tourism continues to account for about six per cent of Singapore's gross domestic product, the city-state aims to transform itself into a global city for five million residents through projects that also carry tourist interest. Aw Kah Peng, Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Tourism Board, spoke to Emirates Business about coping with crises, strategies for the Middle East and what lies ahead.


How do you intend on growing visitor numbers from the Middle East?

At the moment, the business communities and governments are very active both ways and people are travelling both ways. We hope this will continue to drive growth. This year is over in a way and it is time to acknowledge that things will never be the same. As we look forward, it's a question of how we continue to sustain this growth. We think the Middle East has every reason to be interested in Asia and vice versa, so that mutual interest is a great starting point for us.

How do you capitalise on this interest?

From a tourism perspective there are clearly multiple angles. Singapore, first and foremost, is a city for business. We have always been a trading point, a place where people do their business. They come for meetings and to do their banking and financing. In this part of the world, Dubai is a business centre and Abu Dhabi is also a business centre in its own right, so that itself will drive exchanges.

If you look beyond business, then there would be many other reasons why there would be exchanges. One such area would be education. We've been so open to foreign schools that it's become a kind of multi-educational hub. We have US, French, European, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Australian and British universities either setting up or already established. And then clearly there are the leisure visitors. People who want to just come to a city in South East Asia, learn about the culture, what we eat and our heritage. So that piece of it has always been there, in fact we think it will grow because of a number of things we are doing like F1.

What else is on the horizon?

We have two new integrated resorts opening up early next year. These are large scale developments. So it's not one hotel alone but the whole concept of an integrated development. In one case it has got hotels, theme parks, water parks, convention space, retail, food and beverage, museums, theatres and gaming – all in on development.

A couple of years ago we went through a process to invite concepts for an integrated resort based on the provision of a gaming licence provided by the government. Only five per cent of it is a casino. Some people call the whole project a casino, but the fact is that 95 per cent of it is everything else. The second resort is on Sentosa island on the west coast, which will be more of a family destination with Universal Studios. It will include theatres, retail, a marine life park with a maritime museum and hotels. The gaming component is there, but again at five per cent. Ahead of the resorts, we are developing a new cruise terminal, botanical gardens along our bay, a new national art gallery and a sports hub.

What are your visitor projections for 2009?

We are projecting that by the end of this year we will hit nine to 9.5 million visitors. Last year we were at 10.1 million, so it is a drop. We are trying very hard to hit the higher end of this – 9.5 million. But we haven't fallen excessively. I think to expect a five to 10 per cent drop this year on a base of 10 million is probably reasonable in the context of what we're seeing.

What are your 2010 targets?

Next year with the resorts opening, we will get back above 10 million. Hopefully if it pushes along well enough, we could maybe look at 10.5 million or upwards. We are now in the final stages of seeing how these two resorts are coming together. As we get closer we will get a better sense and if we see a momentum being built up, we may be more aggressive and perhaps look at double-digit growth.

As a tourist destination how does one prepare for crises?

You just don't sleep. You have to be on your feet. When we started the year we said this would be a bad year. Before we could even get into the mode of tackling the crisis, H1N1 was on us. These things will keep coming at you and you never know what is going to be the next scare.

The challenge is to build an industry that has the flexibility to react. If you need to change policy you must be able to act fact. If you need your hotels to be ready because of a sudden flu scare you can't wait three months, all you have is probably 24 hours and then everybody has to be ready. They have to know what to do, statements have to be issued, people have to know what position you are taking. So I think the speed at which we are able to respond is absolutely crucial. Of course you're not in an emergency all the time. And when you're not, you've got to be preparing for the future.

Would you grow population base?

Currently our government has a longer term planning parameter and they use 6.5 million as a yardstick for the size of population Singapore can support at our current pace of development. How many years it will take us to get there, we don't know. It's not a question of if we will get there. It's about knowing how to manage your resources and how to plan for future.


PROFILE: Aw Kah Peng Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board (STB)

Peng, 41, has clocked up almost 17 years at Economic Development Board (EBD), rising from a entry-level role as an officer in the Chemicals Industry division to Assistant Managing Director. During her time at EDB, Peng spent more than six years abroad, heading up the Chicago office and subsequently EDB's entire European operation. Peng was awarded a scholarship in 2000 to pursue the Sloan Programme at MIT. Peng returned to Singapore in 2001 to take on the post of Deputy Director of EDB's Chemicals division. In January 2009, Peng joined STB.

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