Managing the planning and development of new visitor attractions: A Singapore model

Abstract

This paper is concerned with modern and expensive multipurpose visitor attractions, initial phases in their planning and development and approaches to managing the process. The growing popularity of such amenities is noted and they are shown to encompass resorts where an assortment of facilities is combined, including gambling. Attention then moves to the case of Singapore and government initiated schemes to build two such integrated resorts with casinos. The highly organized and controlled manner of dealing with the project, incorporating the selection of developers and operators, is described and the overall merits of the strategy are assessed. Some general conclusions about the distinctive features of these large scale attractions and their inception are drawn, although the particular circumstances in Singapore are also evident.