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Singapore will fill its tallest building with a luxury hotel, apartments and offices
DestinationsSkidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, the 75-year-old American architecture, interior design and urban-planning firm better known as SOM, has revealed its design for Tanjong Pagar Centre, set to become Singapore’s tallest building upon its completion in 2016. Reaching 951ft (290m), the 64-storey, mixed-use tower will house offices and high-end apartments, a luxury hotel, retail units [...]
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Changi Airport confirms plans for new mega-terminal to open in coming decade
TransportSingapore’s sprawling Changi Airport is set to get bigger – much bigger – with the opening of a new T5 terminal built to handle as many as 50 million passengers per year. The city-state’s Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew confirmed plans for the new super-sized T5 facility overnight, although the terminal won’t open until sometime in [...]
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UK investors make last-minute bid to buy iconic cruise liner QE2
DestinationsUK investors aiming to bring the QE2 cruise liner back to London have not given up hope of making it part of a tourist attraction on the banks of The Thames. Recent reports suggest the ship is to leave for Singapore in September but sources in the UK claim they are still in contact with [...]
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Singapore needs a wholesale rethink of its tourism strategy
DestinationsFaced with competition, Singapore’s tourism industry needs to offer more unique experiences that appeal to the discerning tourist New attractions lured Thai tourist Usa Pitaknarongporn to Singapore this week — her fifth trip here. The 47-year-old, currently in Singapore for a week-long visit with her family, went to all of them: Marina Bay Sands, Universal [...]
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Singapore tourism growth to halve over next decade amidst competition
DestinationsThe boom years for Singapore’s tourism industry are over, with its pace of growth expected to slow by about half over the next 10 years. This is because of keen regional competition for the same tourism pie and Singapore’s tight labour market, Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said yesterday [...]
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Tourism exec prompts luxurious Singapore to remember its roots
DestinationsWhile waiting for a flight to Miami last month, Mr Lionel Yeo found time to study a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article about Singapore that had been making a stir on social media. It was a racy read. Fast cars, private jumbo jets, S$32,000 cocktails and a lavish party scene — all of which depicted [...]
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HomeAway makes its third move in Asia with tie-up to Singapore’s Travelmob
DigitalHaving already buddied up with China’s TuJia and Singapore-based Wego last year, today HomeAway has agreed another Asian tie-up – this time with Travelmob. As regular readers will recall, Travelmob is from Singapore and aims to be Asia’s Airbnb. HomeAway’s Victor Wang – from HQ in Austin, Texas – explains that this is part of [...]
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Singapore’s remarkable tourism growth lags amidst regional competition
DestinationsSingapore hopes to keep raking in tourist dollars by spicing up its offering of glitzy and glamorous lifestyle events to combat slowing growth in visitors. Since the turn of the century, the Southeast Asian city-state has tried to woo foreigners on holiday to its tropical shores by building mega casino resorts and a brand new [...]
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Uber lands in Asia and stays to true to its launch first, ask later strategy
TransportUber has brought its premium taxi calling app to Singapore—the first country in Asia to get it. The company has been trialing its service here for the past week. According to users who have tried it out here, it runs Mercedes Benz S-Class sedans, setting it above the usual smaller Toyota cabs that the dominant service, [...]
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Singapore’s hotel market is slowing down as the rest of southeast Asia booms
RoomsThe best may be over for Singapore’s booming hotel market as tightening corporate budgets and bank job cuts leave more luxury rooms empty, crimping profits at firms such as CDL Hospitality Trusts. Singapore runs neck-and-neck with Hong Kong for the title of the world’s busiest hotel market, with both boasting occupancy rates that exceeded 85 [...]
