Posts Tagged ‘formula 1’

Casino or culture, Singapore brings tourists

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

What makes Singapore an attractive tourist destination? Casinos or culture?

cute girls gambling

Since Singapore has reduced its exports of electronic components, they are now trying to develop the tourism industry to bring new income to the island-city. As China grows and wins the world, it can expect to prosper from its casinos and roulette strategies as well. Singapore is not exactly mainland China, rather a satellite Chinese economy. As the most modern and wealthy Chinese location, it has led the way for China in many respects.

However, Singapore has a major handicap: it has no Angkor Wat or Taj Mahal as a major touristic attraction unlike most of its neighbors, or tropical beaches and diving spots. For foreigners, Singapore is not the favorite destination but rather a flying hub leading to more exciting countries. Most travelers only spend a few days, so the introduction of casinos is an attempt to attract a different breed of visitors as well as to keep the existing ones longer.

With the new generation of Chinese and the influence of Indians and other Asians who start to travel around the world, Singapore has begun to work on new attractions, including two casinos, a theme park by Universal Studio and French style tourist boats (bateaux mouches).

Other projects to give Singapore a different cachet include the opening of clubs and film clubs, and the famous car racing of the famous Formula One, hoping to attract tourists from other continents. Citigroup, the group responsible for this project, hopes to generate a profit of between $ 150 and $ 200 million per year, and thereby show that Singapore has changed. Creating a Formula One circuit is certainly a brilliant idea, but it does not have no local flavor, does it?

As for the new casinos, they should be similar to those already present in Macao. Faced with all these radical changes, local residents remain skeptical. For them, the establishment of a Formula One circuit is a way to get free publicity. Regarding the casinos that should be opening soon, there was a petition up against the project, criticizing the evils of gaming on families and young people, adding that these venues may attract the local population more than the tourists.

Some deplore this change of the city, thinking that Singapore is seeking to become a modern city and delete all its history and culture in the process, to make way for a city that can be found anywhere, which also represents the end of Chinatown, famous for its shopping.

Time will tell how the casinos perform and if international gamblers really decide to make Singapore a new stop on their routes. The Marina Bay Sands is a very beautiful casino hotel and there is no reason to believe that it will not be a success.