Gambling on Singapore’s model

Hindsight can help define the future. In 2005, Singapore was coming to terms with a need to reinvent itself as a tourism attraction in the face of plummeting arrival numbers and increasing regional competition. This was no time to feel intimidated but to strike out and be inventive.

- KEVIN CLAYTON

The answer being the adoption of large manmade tourism ecosystems, incorporating hospitality, retail, arts, culture, MICE and casino, to resonate strongly with higher value tourists seeking luxury, diversity and excitement in a single destination attraction. The term Integrated Resort (IR) was coined, now more commonly known in Thailand as the Entertainment Complex (EC).

There was no other feasible option than to seek billions of dollars of overseas investment and IR expertise from proven international gambling and hospitality companies, stock market-listed businesses with a strong reputation and proven pedigree developing gold standard product, service, governance and regulatory compliance. Reinvention for Singapore meant delivering iconic attractions strong enough for tourists to feel compelled to stay in the city state, rather than simply transiting through its magnificent Changi Airport to more attractive destinations elsewhere.

The Singapore government drew upon international best practices to put much needed guardrails in place to regulate its gambling market and social programmes to protect its community from gambling-related addiction.