A reply to the previous post. Another perspective, but still going at the same things, at least that’s what I think… put this 2 post together, and then put them into the context of wedding photography… and go… hmmm… :) I can’t wait for next year.HOW TO BE A TOP TOURIST DRAW—————————-

Premium pricing not the point, target market is Work on S'pore's cultural

image to attract top dollar

Letter from tony tan

Letter from erik wilgenhof plante

I refer to the News Comment, “Time to stop being cheap and good” by

Vincent Chia (Dec 14). He said that “We are not cheap as compared to China

and India … So, we should stop trying to be cheap.” He went on to give

examples of hotel room rates, and asked if we want to continue to be

“stuck in the middle?”.

In the context of manufacturing, it's true that the unit cost of

production in India and China is very much lower than it is in

Singapore.

However, in the context of the hotel industry, the room rates in Beijing

and New Delhi are much higher than those in Singapore, at least for the

foreign business traveller.

Genting International's Lim Kok Thay recently said that Genting's hotel

room rates had to be set at a low enough rate to attract the locals to

visit its resort. Otherwise, they would not go.

We must ask ourselves where our target market is. If the objective is to

increase the number of tourists visiting Singapore, the question then is

whether we will achieve this by creating a “premium” pricing as Mr Chia

has suggested.

I believe the hotel market will have to continue to be segmented, with the

five- and six- star hotels offering the premium luxury brand, three- and

four-star hotels offering the affordable mass market segment and, of

course, the budget hotels for the no-frills travellers. This is far from

being “stuck in the middle”.

In his article, Mr Chia made the point that a company – and Singapore, by

and large – needs to be either a cost leader or a cost differentiator,

rather than be “stuck in the middle”, as it will end up poorer for it.

With this, he made a classical marketing error that many companies

still make. Instead of starting with what the customer – be it Singapore

residents or visitors – wants, he immediately jumps to the finished

product and its price.

In my opinion, Singapore should be asking itself if it wants to be a

cheap and relatively good holiday stay or a premium destination with

resort type facilities. Does it want to give the best facilities to its

citizens or does it want to put its wealth into yet another bland shopping

mall or an amusement park?

In comparing Singapore with world renowned cities like London and

Paris, one should be reminded that these cities are much more than places

to live, work and shop. If Singapore really wants to command top price for

its hotel beds, it needs to work on its cultural image.

In The Netherlands, the city of Groningen – where I grew up in –

had the challenge of attracting tourists, even though it's far from the

standard tourist trail.

It answered this challenge by building a world-class modern art

museum, making the inner city car free and attracting shops that are

“different” from the standard mall type outlets. At the same time, it

attracted businesses like biotech and IT to settle down on the outskirts

of town. Couple this with a charming centuries-old city centre and you

have a tourist magnet.

To be like London, Paris and even New York, Singapore needs so much

more than integrated resorts, spruced up streets and luxury hotels. Find

out what kind of people you want to attract before offering them what they

want. The price becomes irrelevant after that.