Sentosa blooms: fresh looks to draw more travellers
Hotels in Sentosa have been sprucing up to cash in on the increased number of visitors to the island a spillover effect from the opening of Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) and its casino.
Of Sentosa's seven resorts, excluding those in RWS, four Rasa Sentosa Resort, Singapore; Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa, Costa Sands Resort Sentosa and The Sentosa Resort & Spa have either recently upgraded their facilities or are doing so.
In addition, an eighth hotel, the six-star Movenpick Hotel Sentosa, will open partially this year.
So, by this time next year, Sentosa will have 1,332 hotel rooms outside of RWS 17 per cent more than what it had in March this year.
Four of RWS' six hotels Festive Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel Singapore, Crockfords Towers and Hotel Michael opened on Jan 20, adding 1,350 rooms to the island.
Its remaining two hotels, Equarius Hotel and Spa Villas, will add another 500 rooms when they are completed.
Its casino opened on Feb 14 while its theme park, Universal Studios Singapore, started operations on March 18.
In a March report in The New Paper, Sentosa Leisure Group said the number of visitors to Sentosa, excluding RWS, grew 17 per cent from January to March 23, compared with that of the same period last year.
-News courtesy of Omy-
Friday, 14 May 2010
Thursday, 13 May 2010
MacRitchie Reservoir's new submerged broadwalk
Walk on water at MacRitchie Reservoir's new submerged broadwalk
Visitors to MacRitchie Reservoir will soon be able to walk on water - at a new submerged boardwalk.
National water agency, PUB, says the 40-metre long submerged boardwalk extends from one bank of the reservoir to another.
Visitors will be able to walk through shallow waters to see water plants growing alongside the boardwalk and be in close contact with tadpoles, fish, snails and other aquatic life.
Water plants will be introduced as they help to purify rainwater before it flows into the reservoir.
Visitors can also look forward to a new F&B outlet at the hilltop.
Several improvements will be made to the bandstand, internal roads and footpaths.
A new building will also be constructed at the current Paddle Lodge to cater for the public and schools for their canoe and kayaking activities.
They're part of phase two improvement works at the reservoir park, costing some 4.5 million dollars.
Work is expected to be completed by the third quarter of next year.
The project is part of PUB's long-term initiative known as the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) programme.
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
Visitors to MacRitchie Reservoir will soon be able to walk on water - at a new submerged boardwalk.
National water agency, PUB, says the 40-metre long submerged boardwalk extends from one bank of the reservoir to another.
Visitors will be able to walk through shallow waters to see water plants growing alongside the boardwalk and be in close contact with tadpoles, fish, snails and other aquatic life.
Water plants will be introduced as they help to purify rainwater before it flows into the reservoir.
Visitors can also look forward to a new F&B outlet at the hilltop.
Several improvements will be made to the bandstand, internal roads and footpaths.
A new building will also be constructed at the current Paddle Lodge to cater for the public and schools for their canoe and kayaking activities.
They're part of phase two improvement works at the reservoir park, costing some 4.5 million dollars.
Work is expected to be completed by the third quarter of next year.
The project is part of PUB's long-term initiative known as the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) programme.
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
Jetstar to start long-haul flights
Budget carrier Jetstar plans to start low-cost long-haul flights
Jetstar, the low-cost offshoot of Australian flag-carrier Qantas, said Wednesday it will launch long-haul flights from Singapore to Australia, North Asia and Europe to tap on growing demand.
The new budget service is expected to commence from Singapore's Changi airport late this year, Jetstar said in a statement.
"Jetstar continues to grow strongly as we build our pan-Asian presence," chief executive Bruce Buchanan said in the statement.
Company spokesman Simon Westaway said Jetstar's plans to operate the long-haul budget service out of Singapore reflects the carrier's ambitions to tap growing demand for air travel in the region.
"IATA figures say the Asian market is now the largest in the world," Westaway told AFP after a press briefing in Singapore.
"It's only going to expand. The reason that we are doing all the investment in Asia is that we want us to be an Asian success in Asia because that's where the growth is."
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said earlier this year the Asia-Pacific region had overtaken North America as the world's largest air travel market with 647 million passengers in 2009.
Jetstar's experience from its international flights out of Australia has demonstrated that there is travel demand even in a shrinking market if the pricing is competitive, Westaway said.
He cited the Australia-Japan route as an example where Jetstar has enjoyed 35 percent growth in annual traffic even though the overall market is shrinking.
"So even in contracting markets, what's happening is that the customer base is moving towards the value-based providers because of obviously affordability," he said.
Westaway said the first long-haul flight out of Singapore is expected to take off in December but the destination has not yet been finalised and that the carrier will offer competitive fares.
"We will be very low-fare in the market. We will try to bring the overall low fares down by around 30 percent," he said.
Jetstar's fare pricing is on average 35-40 percent below that of Qantas, Westaway said.
Two new A330-200 jets will be deployed for the new service and Jetstar will be taking delivery of the first aircraft in November.
The carrier already operates long-haul services from Australia to destinations including Bali, Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Phuket and Honolulu.
It's Singapore-based affiliate Jetstar Asia currently flies to short-haul destinations from the city-state.
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
Jetstar, the low-cost offshoot of Australian flag-carrier Qantas, said Wednesday it will launch long-haul flights from Singapore to Australia, North Asia and Europe to tap on growing demand.
The new budget service is expected to commence from Singapore's Changi airport late this year, Jetstar said in a statement.
"Jetstar continues to grow strongly as we build our pan-Asian presence," chief executive Bruce Buchanan said in the statement.
Company spokesman Simon Westaway said Jetstar's plans to operate the long-haul budget service out of Singapore reflects the carrier's ambitions to tap growing demand for air travel in the region.
"IATA figures say the Asian market is now the largest in the world," Westaway told AFP after a press briefing in Singapore.
"It's only going to expand. The reason that we are doing all the investment in Asia is that we want us to be an Asian success in Asia because that's where the growth is."
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said earlier this year the Asia-Pacific region had overtaken North America as the world's largest air travel market with 647 million passengers in 2009.
Jetstar's experience from its international flights out of Australia has demonstrated that there is travel demand even in a shrinking market if the pricing is competitive, Westaway said.
He cited the Australia-Japan route as an example where Jetstar has enjoyed 35 percent growth in annual traffic even though the overall market is shrinking.
"So even in contracting markets, what's happening is that the customer base is moving towards the value-based providers because of obviously affordability," he said.
Westaway said the first long-haul flight out of Singapore is expected to take off in December but the destination has not yet been finalised and that the carrier will offer competitive fares.
"We will be very low-fare in the market. We will try to bring the overall low fares down by around 30 percent," he said.
Jetstar's fare pricing is on average 35-40 percent below that of Qantas, Westaway said.
Two new A330-200 jets will be deployed for the new service and Jetstar will be taking delivery of the first aircraft in November.
The carrier already operates long-haul services from Australia to destinations including Bali, Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Phuket and Honolulu.
It's Singapore-based affiliate Jetstar Asia currently flies to short-haul destinations from the city-state.
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Sentosa sees 30% surge in visitors
Sentosa sees surge of 30% in visitors with record numbers on some days
Sentosa is seeing a surge in visitors. From February to April this year, it had an increase of over 30 per cent in visitors compared with the same period last year.
It also had record numbers on certain days.
Sentosa is riding on new attractions such as Universal Studios Singapore and Resorts World Sentosa.
Longtime attractions and house staples managed by Sentosa Leisure Group like the Merlion and the Images of Singapore are enjoying renewed interest, drawing 26 per cent more visitors between February and April.
One visitor said: "It is a very nice place to visit because it is almost complete all the entertainment"
Sentosa said the good performance can also be attributed to the turnaround in the economy and it said that within the next five years, it's projecting guest arrivals to more than double than the current six million visitors it's seeing in the past two years.
A crowd size of up to 20,000 was previously seen on only a weekend but it's now typical on a weekday.
Rajavarman M, assistant manager, Admission Operations, Operations and Retail Division, said: "During a weekday, we see a weekend crowd before RWS has opened and on a weekend we are seeing a slightly more peak crowd that we used to see during certain public holidays. And during our current public holidays, we see an almost super peak crowd, like during Chinese New Year - we almost hit a 100,000 crowd which we have never seen before".
Manpower and resources have been stepped up by up to 50 per cent to manage the crowds.
Mr Rajavarman added: “We have got queue management plans and increased our trains. We see and study the traffic patterns and we increase the trains and buses accordingly like on a weekday.
“We have seven buses running last time but now we have got 14 buses. On a weekend, we increase to 21 buses. For the deployment for manpower and all that, we increase by 50 per cent.”
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
Sentosa is seeing a surge in visitors. From February to April this year, it had an increase of over 30 per cent in visitors compared with the same period last year.
It also had record numbers on certain days.
Sentosa is riding on new attractions such as Universal Studios Singapore and Resorts World Sentosa.
Longtime attractions and house staples managed by Sentosa Leisure Group like the Merlion and the Images of Singapore are enjoying renewed interest, drawing 26 per cent more visitors between February and April.
One visitor said: "It is a very nice place to visit because it is almost complete all the entertainment"
Sentosa said the good performance can also be attributed to the turnaround in the economy and it said that within the next five years, it's projecting guest arrivals to more than double than the current six million visitors it's seeing in the past two years.
A crowd size of up to 20,000 was previously seen on only a weekend but it's now typical on a weekday.
Rajavarman M, assistant manager, Admission Operations, Operations and Retail Division, said: "During a weekday, we see a weekend crowd before RWS has opened and on a weekend we are seeing a slightly more peak crowd that we used to see during certain public holidays. And during our current public holidays, we see an almost super peak crowd, like during Chinese New Year - we almost hit a 100,000 crowd which we have never seen before".
Manpower and resources have been stepped up by up to 50 per cent to manage the crowds.
Mr Rajavarman added: “We have got queue management plans and increased our trains. We see and study the traffic patterns and we increase the trains and buses accordingly like on a weekday.
“We have seven buses running last time but now we have got 14 buses. On a weekend, we increase to 21 buses. For the deployment for manpower and all that, we increase by 50 per cent.”
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
Friday, 7 May 2010
Contributors needed!!!
Contributors needed!!!
Hi everyone,
I am looking for contributors to this site. Anyone who lives in Singapore or visit Singapore regularly (or even not so regularly) is welcomed to write for this blog.
Please email me at quekpj(XXXX)gmail.com
Replace (XXXX) with @
Looking forward to any contributions. Thanks!
Hi everyone,
I am looking for contributors to this site. Anyone who lives in Singapore or visit Singapore regularly (or even not so regularly) is welcomed to write for this blog.
Please email me at quekpj(XXXX)gmail.com
Replace (XXXX) with @
Looking forward to any contributions. Thanks!
S$3 taxi surcharge for MBS
SMRT taxis to impose S$3 surcharge for Marina Bay Sands from May 13
From next Thursday, SMRT taxis will implement a S$3 location surcharge per trip for Marina Bay Sands.
This applies to passengers who board taxis from Marina Bay Sands.
The location surcharge will be in effect from 5pm to midnight from Mondays through Saturdays, and from 6am to midnight on Sundays and public holidays.
SMRT Corporation said the location surcharge is in response to a request from the management of Marina Bay Sands to reduce the waiting time for taxis at its premises.
SMRT's move came after the announcement by ComfortDelGro, TransCab and Prime Taxi that they will start imposing the surcharge from next Wednesday.
News courtesy of Channel Newsasia
From next Thursday, SMRT taxis will implement a S$3 location surcharge per trip for Marina Bay Sands.
This applies to passengers who board taxis from Marina Bay Sands.
The location surcharge will be in effect from 5pm to midnight from Mondays through Saturdays, and from 6am to midnight on Sundays and public holidays.
SMRT Corporation said the location surcharge is in response to a request from the management of Marina Bay Sands to reduce the waiting time for taxis at its premises.
SMRT's move came after the announcement by ComfortDelGro, TransCab and Prime Taxi that they will start imposing the surcharge from next Wednesday.
News courtesy of Channel Newsasia
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Marina Bay Sands sees crowds
Marina Bay Sands sees crowds on first weekend
It's the first weekend for Singapore's second integrated resort Marina Bay Sands.
As it gears up for the crowds, it's also getting ready to play host to former US Vice President Al Gore and delegates attending the Inter-Pacific Bar Association 20th annual conference.
The organisers said they wanted to bid for the event to be held in Singapore last year.
But due to construction delays at Marina Bay Sands, they decided to wait till this year to host the conference.
They said there were some issues at the start of the this year's conference.
They include taking some time registering the some 1,000 delegates but these issues have been ironed out.
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
It's the first weekend for Singapore's second integrated resort Marina Bay Sands.
As it gears up for the crowds, it's also getting ready to play host to former US Vice President Al Gore and delegates attending the Inter-Pacific Bar Association 20th annual conference.
The organisers said they wanted to bid for the event to be held in Singapore last year.
But due to construction delays at Marina Bay Sands, they decided to wait till this year to host the conference.
They said there were some issues at the start of the this year's conference.
They include taking some time registering the some 1,000 delegates but these issues have been ironed out.
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
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