Channel NewsAsia 20 Nov 07
SINGAPORE : A luxurious spa retreat in Mandai could soon be a reality with new plans for the area.
Two new nature-themed attractions in Mandai, to complement the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari, were announced on Tuesday.
The Singapore Zoo's five cheetahs just got a bigger home, as part of a S$70 million masterplan by Wildlife Reserves Singapore to improve the facilities of the Zoo and Night Safari.
Meanwhile, even bigger things are being planned for the whole Mandai region.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) wants to turn the area into Asia's next top nature spot, with two new attractions on the way.
A 30-hectare site in the area may soon become the next luxurious topical spa retreat, and another idea being considered is an exotic river-themed development, where visitors can learn about freshwater habitat.
S Iswaran, Minister of State, Trade and Industry, said, "Certainly if you want to go into a large national park, Singapore may not be able to compete with some of what's being offered in the region. If you're looking for an immersive experience, tropical rainforest in a natural setting, I think we can do quite a bit. Obviously we can't compete on size, so we have to compete on the quality of the experience, the nature of the experience.
"And when you go to an urban centre, you don't really go to a city expecting a back-to-nature experience in this total sense. You want an immersive experience and that's where the Zoo and the Night Safari can play a part, and I think the Mandai nature park kind of nature destination can play a part."
There is something very relaxing about being immersed in nature, and the government believes that if done well, visitors to Mandai can forget that they are actually only minutes away from the city centre.
STB is confident that with the new attractions, the number of visitors to Mandai could double to 5 million by 2015. - CNA/ms
Northern Exposure
30-ha site in Mandai to be nature retreat
Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 21 Nov 07;
IMAGINE spending a night or two in a nature retreat in Mandai, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. There, you can enjoy a spa under the rainforest canopy while relaxing to the chirping of birds.
This may come true as the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) wants to develop a 30-hectare site — the equivalent of about 42 football fields — into a nature cluster that would attract 5 million visitors by 2015, which is double the number now.
"If you look at the overall tourism positioning in Singapore, we have some very city-type products in the Marina Bay area with the IRs (integrated resorts), we have a bit more of a family-activity-type product in Sentosa.
"What we're trying to do here now is to create and build on what we have in terms of the nature-themed attraction," said Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran after launching the Cheetah enclosure at the Singapore Zoo yesterday.
The revamped home offers the zoo's five cheetahs more running space and a new glass-fronted observation hut for visitors to see the cats up close.
He described Mandai as a "natural choice" for the new nature retreat since the zoo and the Night Safari are located there.
"Obviously, we can't compete (with other countries) on size, so we have to compete on the quality of the experience, the nature of the experience," said Mr Iswaran.
In addition to the nature cluster, a third animal attraction would be developed to complement the zoo and the Night Safari.
The themed attraction would create exotic river environments and allow visitors to learn about endangered freshwater flora and fauna in natural habitats.
The Wildlife Reserves Singapore has also drawn up a $70-million master plan to build new facilities, such as upgraded amphitheatres and new trams, into the zoo and the Night Safari.
The STB will invite investors to propose suitable tourism products for the Mandai nature cluster in the middle of next year.
"Singapore has, over the years, been branded as quite a stereotypical city that is lacking in resort-style atmosphere, so the new developments will complement what we already have here," said National Association of Travel Agents chief executive Robert Khoo.
But Ms Judy Lum, vice-president for sales and marketing of Tour East, said: "Usually, tourists who are into nature want it as natural as possible and they are usually on a budget … If you want to make it exclusive and price it in the higher-end range, it really has to be different."
Since some tourists can find nature easily in their countries or travel to places with natural reserves, the Mandai nature cluster may well attract locals instead of international tourists, said Associate Professor Chang Tou Chuang, deputy head at the National University of Singapore's geography department.
Unlike in a safari where a tourist crosses from place to place to see wildlife, Assoc Prof Chang said he doubts that one will see a huge variety of wildlife staying in Mandai for one or two nights. "So, it's really for people who want to get away from it all."
Mandai to get new nature attraction on 30-hectare site
Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 21 Nov 07;
The aim: A cluster of green-themed offerings in the area that will help to draw more tourists
AT LEAST one more nature-themed attraction will spring up in Mandai by 2015.
The Government will, in the middle of next year, release a 30ha site - roughly three times the size of VivoCity mall - for developing such an attraction.
The site can house a back-to-nature resort, a wildlife-themed restaurant, or anything with a nature theme that a developer can dream up.
Such a move will widen the range of tourism offerings by creating a cluster of nature-based attractions in Mandai, which is already home to the Zoo, the Night Safari and the Mandai Orchid Garden.
Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran, who opened a new cheetah habitat in the Zoo yesterday, said: 'An increasing number of tourists are keen to commune with nature, visit natural habitats and see wildlife - perhaps as a counterpoint to the modern urban lifestyle.'
These nature-themed attractions, together with the integrated resorts, the Formula One race, the Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore Flyer, are meant to get Singapore closer to snagging 17 million visitors who will spend $30 billion here by 2015.
Meanwhile, Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which manages the Zoo and Night Safari, is developing a freshwater-themed animal attraction within its 89-ha compound.
To be ready by 2015, this will be the third attraction in Wildlife Reserves' stable.
The company will also put $70 million over the next five years into improving the Zoo and Night Safari, by adding more trams, building new wildlife zones and creating more restaurants, for example.
The Zoo and Night Safari now pull in 2.5 million visitors a year, but with the new attractions in place, the Singapore Tourism Board expects Mandai's visitor numbers to double by 2015.
Former Zoo chief Bernard Harrison said Mandai was due for a shot in the arm, as it has been more than a decade since the Night Safari opened there.
Ms Ng Lee Li, a section head for the Tourism Academy @ Sentosa, said the cluster will mean that the attractions there can tap each other's spillover visitors.
She added that making the 30ha plot a 'lifestyle' kind of attraction with accommodation, food and beverage and retail outlets will bring in nature lovers and non-nature lovers alike.
CTC Holidays' senior manager of outbound tours Jocelyn Su noted that more Singaporeans, too, have been flocking to countries like Australia and Malaysia in search of a connection with nature.
She said she has seen up to 40 per cent more bookings in the last two years for holidays to places like Taiwan and Hokkaido, where a stay in a forest lodge or trekking in a mangrove swamp is on the itinerary.
To her comment that Singapore's nature-themed attractions will go up against these countries' offerings, Mr Iswaran said that while Singapore could not compete in terms of size, it could do so in the quality department.
He added: 'If you come to the zoo here, you wouldn't think that five minutes away are Housing Board flats and 20 minutes away is the Central Business District.'
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Do we need another nature-themed attraction?
NO: Nature Society thinks it will cause greater damage to nature reserve
Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 22 Nov 07
YES: A nature escape will add to Singapore's attraction as a tourist destination, say travel agents
30ha of greenery in Mandai has been set aside for a new attraction near the Zoo and Night Safari, and the idea is already drawing varied reactions
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due to over-development? and more thoughts on the nature scouter blog
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Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 21 Nov 07;
Mandai to be turned into Asia's top nature spot
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11 comments:
People don't need the zoo to have an 'immersive experience'. Mandai is already one big experience for anyone who care to walk along Mandai's existing trails and enjoy it fabulously pristine nature.
Zoo? Spa Retreat? It is a de-service to nature and nature appreciation. It's about making money. Money, money money... full stop. I shudder to think where the zoo is getting their '30-hectare' of forested land - to disturb and buid up the unnecessary and earn money behind a cloak of education programmes that 'intrude' more than 'immerse'. Our children deserve to be wiser to tease apart euphemisms that are dished out by business people in our midst, esp. when it involves nature conservation. It affects us all.
Unlike Chek Jawa which has little immediate commercial value, if it's all about money, money, money versus talk, talk, talk, I think who will win is quite obvious.
Everyone should have seen it coming. How would it be possible for the govt to leave large tracts of land unused when economic profits could be garnered. This is Singapore, where practicality reigns supreme and money speaks volumes.
BTW, Mr Lai has been very critical against the Zoo of late. Some bad blood spilled along the way? Education of kids is important. Let's be honest, Singaporean parents aren't exactly too keen on letting kids get down and dirty trekking through jungle terrain. Kids of this generation have ridiculously short attention spans. A re-created, less hostile environment such as a zoo is probably the only way to reach out to the masses (both kids and parents).
I respect conservationists' dedication for their cause. But often times, they fail to understand that their Utopian ideals will ultimately fall flat and achieve nothing. Extremist thinking has no place in today's world and some level of compromise has to be sought.
May I ask what is so Utopian or extremist in the view that space should be set aside for nature? Isn't the so-called 'practical' mindset of wanting to 'develop' every square inch of land a truly extremist view that fails to take into account the notion that at some point, there will be no space left on the island to 'develop' and that human quality of life is itself, both aesthetic and environmental, dependent on there being natural spaces?
indeed, people need to wake up to the new movement in conservation. please do not think that conservationist have some form of utopian ideal to "save the wilderness/nature etc etc" because it's so beautiful and for its intangible intrinsic value, we should leave it alone and forsake economic growth and all that impractical and unrealistic talk.
Realistic and practical plans is NOT to clear-cut a very rare pristine area into commercialised outfit only to try to RECREATE the "wilderness" we had before.
Does THAT make commercial sense?
Realistic and practical plans is to look at what we have and to work with it very carefully and develop self-sustaining programs which can at the same time generate profits for the tourism industry and yet conserving the area.
since when have you seen development in singapore not involving widespread clearing and then trying to recreate what is lost. talk about unrealistic and wasteful of money and resources.
conservation is FOR the people. Not for nature. Without all the resources that we ALREADY have, without all the heritage that we already have, no amount of planting trees and creating education programs to see animals stuck behind cages and glass windows would help our children understand the true value of our environment.
Just because a child has gotten the oportunity to see a rhino before behind a glass window or upclose and personal doesn't mean the child will automatically come to value 1) nature 2) the value of our environment 3) the plight of the animal and its environment 4) its role in our life
Instead, all he will learn is that animal lives in zoos. what kind of environmental education is this?
I rather never see an animal before in my life and just watch on discovery channel but know and understand the value of our environment and our dependency on this environment.
Just because you don't feel the immediate need for those mangroves and forest in mandai doesn't mean it does not play a part in our lives. Replanting a few trees along our roads does not replace these natural habitats.
Just because we don't feel their immediate impacts in our lives does not mean that they do not have a very important role in our lives.
ah yes i might as well qualify what i mean by "rare" and "pristine".
Rare means that in Singapore we only have hardly 10% of our original vegetation and ecosystems left in this urbanised island.
Pristine does not mean primary forest. Pristine is comparative to things like a garden or park that has been planted with introduced species.
Although I know that Nparks is doing a great job of trying to introduced back native species but it will be a long time before it will get to what these forests that is making way for a SPA is going to be.
Practical is looking at the amount of time it takes to build a spa and the amount of time it takes to build a forest.
Think about that when people talk about "offsetting" your impacts.
Why offset when you can prevent the loss in the first place.
Coming from good environmental planning practices, it is always advocated to not "sprawl" into "untouched" areas but better to build in areas that have already been disturbed, built, wasteland.
Mandai forest is definitely not a wasteland.
Speaking of which, can a zoo seriously be considered a "nature area"?
Now, pre-development, Mandai is indeed a top nature spot in Singapore.
Post-development, Mandai will only be the top nature-theme park in Asia.
Top nature spots will be things like Maliau Basin, Danum Valley, places with infrastructure carefully weaved into the ecosystem. Definitely not building a zoo and spa!
We really need to be ever so careful when we use the term "NATURE". What is Nature? "Natural"? "outdoors"?
Do you really think the true nature tourists will go to Mandai just because we say it's the top nature spot?
Sungei Buloh will be more "nature" than Mandai after throwing a spa in there.
"Nature Spot" here is really a misnomer. They are really target mainstream tourists who wouldn't normally go enjoy "nature" in its real form.
If so, we are really presenting what nature they wish to see. That is definitely no form of environmental education I wish to have for my future generation.
But nature spot doesn't mean it must be rough and uncomfortable and uncivilised!
It does mean taking careful consideration of our impacts.
Besides, if I adhere to the definition by STB then I'm nature too! Come see me. Put me in a cage.
@monkey: YES it makes perfect COMMERCIAL sense. Presently maybe a handful of bird-watchers, researchers ,nature society members and poachers visit the Mandai forests every year. With development, a million visitors are expected. That IS commercialism. Million visitors = fat tourism receipts.
You may think I'm some apathetic idiot who doesn't give a shit about the environment and conservation. The truth is, I DO care and I see the need to. Unfortunately, 90 per cent of the population don't.
The conservation message is too high brow and detached from the average person. And hardlined conservationists are not finding solutions to this. If anything, they come across as wackos to the masses.
The conservation message has to be dumbed down to reach the masses. Zoos and "nature-themed" spas may be cheesy and "fake", but they make appreciation of conservation issues more palatable. BTW, as far as zoos go, Singapore Zoo is probably as natural as it gets. It has arguably the most accessible population of wild colugos anywhere in the world.
You could give an hour-long lecture
about the benefits of recycling, but believe me, the average person will definitely have a more lasting impression by watching an otter dump a tin can into a recycling bin.
Why do you think the conservation message has largely fallen on deaf ears thus far? Because it has failed to connect with its target audience - the average, indifferent person.
I could write a thesis about the conservation benefits of redeveloping Mandai, but I shall not turn this into a bitter argument. To each his own.
There may be a place for more 'eye-catchers' or 'iconic images' like an otter dumping trash or a cute animal dying from pollution/habitat loss, but I am not sure why the conservation message, in all its complexity and urgency, should become so 'dumbed down' that it becomes a mere feel-good factor. Why can't some environmentalists play the catchy tunes while others highlight the increasingly palpable effects (rising food costs, climate effects etc) that man's destruction of nature/overconsumption is causing to himself? That said, projects like a million or so visitors to Mandai are moot for now; I just wonder what fresh ideas would people have when all available land in Singapore is used up for such developments and the official population targets.
everybody's jumping on the green bandwagon. saying you are doing conservation brings in the moolahs.
Joseph Lai has shared his thoughts about plans for Mandai in an article "Forest Science Crapped in Singapore"
on his eart-h.com website
http://www.eart-h.com/text/mandai.htm
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