What can we learn from Singapore's successful measures to develop tourism?

Enlightenment of Singapore's Tourism Development

Singapore * * * is a city island country, located on the northern shore of Malacca Strait and the southern tip of Malay Peninsula. It consists of Singapore Island and more than 50 nearby islands, with a total area of 622.8 square kilometers, which is only equivalent to the area of a town in China. 100 years ago, it was still an unknown fishing village. There are no famous mountains and rivers, no historical sites more than 200 years ago. The only resources can be said to be "sunshine and harbor" However, it is such a veritable "tiny place". In the case of insufficient natural resources, we have found a new way to actively develop tourism and made great contributions to the national economy. At present, Singapore is one of the most developed countries in the world and plays an important role in the Asia-Pacific tourism region. Therefore, learning from Singapore's successful experience in developing characteristic tourism will play a positive role in promoting the development of tourism in China.

First of all, we must figure out what is characteristic tourism. Characteristic tourism should have the following three connotations: ① From the tourism resources of characteristic tourism, its tourism resources must be rooted in the special climate and environment of the tourist destination, or rely on unique culture, customs and historical events. (2) From the source market of characteristic tourism, its source market only aims at a specific source market to meet the diversified needs of some tourists. Therefore, the source market of characteristic tourism is small and the number of tourists is small. ③ From the development form of characteristic tourism, its tourism form must have a specific theme, and tourism activities often emphasize or encourage tourists to actively participate in order to pursue personalized tourism experience. Through the above discussion on the connotation of characteristic tourism, this paper puts forward the concept that characteristic tourism is a tourism form with rich content, diverse forms, distinctive themes and strong participation, which is based on the unique natural and human resources of tourist destinations and developed for specific tourism markets.

In the absence of natural resources, Singapore has found a new way by virtue of its diversified cultural characteristics, good economic environment and stable social order. On the basis of traditional tourism projects and according to the needs of the tourism market, it has actively developed and created new tourism projects, making its tourism industry flourish, receiving more than/kloc-0.00 million foreign tourists every year and earning more than 9 billion US dollars annually, making it one of the most developed countries in the world.

Singapore's successful experience in developing characteristic tourism can be summarized as follows:

1. Attach importance to the management, planning and investment of tourism. Tourism management is carried out through two channels: government departments and industry associations. The former mainly carries out macro-management and planning to fully and scientifically develop tourism resources and ensure the healthy development of tourism layout. The latter urges the tourism industry to standardize, guide and promote travel agencies and tourism organizations to continuously improve their service quality and conduct orderly competition, thus ensuring the effective and orderly self-development of the tourism industry. In order to manage tourism according to law, Singapore has promulgated and implemented the Singapore Travel Agency Law, the Singapore Hotel Law and the Singapore Tourism Promotion Tax Law. Singapore's laws are strict, the world is civilized, and there is a saying that "Singapore has strict discipline". In order to ensure the quality and low price of the goods sold, the Singapore Tourism Board and the Consumers Association jointly launched the "Excellent Retail Plan", which distributed the red and white Merlion logo to reputable stores as trusted stores. If you are cheated when shopping, you can complain to the tourism bureau or the consumer association. Once verified, it will not only be ordered to double the compensation for tourists' losses, but also revoke their business licenses. Department. While managing the tourism industry in an orderly manner, the Singapore government also attaches great importance to the planning and investment of the tourism industry. Since 1980s, Singapore has invested 200-400 million US dollars in tourism every year. In 2005, Singapore Tourism Board formulated the overall tourism development plan-"Tourism 20 15". In 2007, the Singapore government invested S $2 billion as a tourism development fund for the construction of tourism infrastructure, scenic spots and scenic spots.

2. Make full use of superior geographical location and develop tourism according to local conditions. Starting from its own national conditions, Singapore has made full use of its unique geographical conditions to build an international trade port, a duty-free shopping center, a gourmet paradise, an international conference and an international financial center, making it a veritable regional center in Southeast Asia. Singapore is a duty-free port, with a full range of goods from all over the world and low prices. It is a shopping paradise for tourists. Singapore is also a famous gourmet paradise, where cuisines from all over the world gather, providing a variety of choices for tourists with different tastes and budgets. Taking advantage of its geographical position, Singapore regards the tourism resources of neighboring Southeast Asian countries as favorable conditions for its tourism development, making it a tourist transit point in Southeast Asia, thus making Singapore one of the top ten tourist centers in the world. Because international conferences have the characteristics of large number of participants, long stay, strong purchasing power and high tourism economic benefits, the Singapore government set up the International Conference Bureau as early as 1974, and established more than 100 international conference halls to vigorously explore the international conference tourism market. Now Singapore has become the first international conference center in Asia and the fifth in the world. By holding various large-scale international conferences every year, the Singapore government has not only gained rich economic returns, but also greatly improved its international status and popularity, and finally promoted the development of national tourism.

3. Create a good tourism environment. The Singapore government attaches great importance to the construction and creation of its own tourism environment. First of all, from 65438 to 0973, the Singapore government launched an effective afforestation campaign nationwide, vigorously rectified sewage channels and changed the appearance of the city, making Singapore a veritable garden city and the only "three noes" city in the world. Secondly, Singapore has a set of perfect tourism service institutions, and the quality of tourism reception service is high, which is world-class. Thirdly, in order to make foreign tourists visit Singapore "barrier-free", Singapore Tourism Board has set up tourist guides, publicity materials, road signs and billboards in many languages, including Chinese, in hotels, streets and other places. Finally, according to the characteristics of Chinese accounting for 7%, the Singapore government has educated its citizens on the fine tradition of Confucianism, actively carried out the "courtesy movement" and the "respect for the elderly movement", and established a good social fashion in Singapore, so that tourists not only feel particularly safe in life and property, but also feel cordial and respected when traveling in Singapore. The creation of tourism environment has made Singapore politically stable since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the creation of tourism environment has made Singapore's political stability and sustained economic growth. There has never been a coup, riots or riots, and there is no war conflict. The good social order and low crime rate are important reasons for the continuous growth of tourists in Singapore.

4. Actively explore and create new forms of tourism. "Endless tourism economy" is the basis for Singapore Tourism Board to formulate various policies. Under the guidance of this idea, Singapore has continuously expanded the development space of tourism economy and constantly innovated. In addition to developing sightseeing tourism, we also actively develop tourism products such as shopping tourism, incentive tourism, conference tourism, education and study tourism, medical and health tourism, cruise tourism, business tourism, etc., and constantly meet the needs of tourists from all over the world. At the same time, we should adapt to the new trend and new demand of tourism economy with a positive and innovative attitude, and promote the development of Singapore's tourism economy from three aspects: innovating tourism products and promotion methods, strengthening the training of tourism talents and improving tourism management strategies.

5. Strengthen tourism publicity and promotion. Paying attention to tourism propaganda and improving Singapore's popularity and international competitiveness are the main experiences of developing characteristic tourism in Singapore. First of all, the Singapore government believes that the quality of publicity work is the key to determining the number of tourists. Since 2004, the Singapore Tourism Board has always regarded "very Singapore, three days is not enough" as the propaganda slogan of Greater China, and it has received very good results. Secondly, the Singapore government allocates $654.38 million annually from the taxes paid by tourism enterprises for tourism promotion. Thirdly, the Singapore government also sends a group of tourism promotion groups abroad every year to promote and cooperate with foreign travel agencies and tourism departments.

The successful experience of Singapore's tourism development is of great significance to China's tourism development. However, in the process of developing tourism, no country or region should and cannot simply repeat or copy the experience of others. We must proceed from our own reality, give full play to our advantages and find a new way.

1. Strengthen advertising. First of all, we can send ambassadors to all countries in the world to publicize China's tourism resources. Posters are posted in crowded places such as airports, subways and railway stations, and free Chinese tourist brochures and atlases are placed to enhance tourists' understanding of tourist attractions in various regions of China. Secondly, a series of ticket packages for major scenic spots within or across regions will be implemented. It is cheaper to sell tickets for different types of scenic spots as a whole than to buy different tickets for tourists alone, which helps to motivate tourists to visit more places and more scenic spots, prolong their stay and increase their tourism consumption. Thirdly, make use of network resources to make web pages related to China's tourism resources, and at the same time answer questions from foreign tourists, so as to enhance foreign friends' understanding of China's tourism resources. One-stop service is implemented for tourism services to facilitate foreign tourists to visit all parts of China.

2. Give full play to the advantages of tourism resources and develop tourism products with oriental characteristics. Compared with Singapore, the most prominent advantage of China's tourism development is its rich and colorful tourism resources. China is rich in tourism resources. According to the classification, investigation and evaluation of tourism resources, there are at least 155 types of existing tourism resources in China, and some categories may not be included. At the same time, China has 5,000 years of splendid civilization and profound culture. Those ancient and peculiar historical sites, cultural relics, customs, culture and art are the reappearance of China's long history and the proof of China's splendid traditional culture. Moreover, there are four distinct seasons in China, and there are obvious regional differences in natural tourism resources. Moreover, the tourism resources in China strongly reflect the comprehensive characteristics, and often some scenic spots are integrated with natural and human landscapes, and historical culture and scenic spots are integrated. These unique tourism resources are unmatched by Singapore and even other countries in the world. Therefore, we should give full play to the advantages of China's tourism resources, deeply explore its rich cultural connotation, vigorously develop tourism products with local characteristics, and achieve "no one has me" and "no one has me" in order to stand out from the fierce competition in the tourism market and realize the leap-forward development of tourism.

3. Strengthen the construction of tourism environment and establish a good image as a tourist destination country. In recent years, China has done a lot of work in the construction of tourism environment and made great achievements. However, compared with Singapore, due to China's vast territory and rich resources, the development of different regions is uneven, and there is a certain gap in both the hard environment and the soft environment of tourism. Therefore, efforts should be made to create a beautiful image and connotation of "China Excellent Tourist City", improve the environmental quality of tourist cities, and establish a good city image. It is required that urban planning, urban design and municipal construction should be integrated with tourism and garden awareness, and new urban projects should be consistent with urban characteristics and traditional features in terms of architectural style, image characteristics and cultural connotation, and be coordinated and harmonious. Any unit or individual building must ensure that a certain area of land is used for greening. In the aspect of building facade beautification, we should make full use of space, do a good job in wall greening, improve urban greening coverage and enrich urban landscape. Vigorously improve urban rivers, cut off sewage sources, and reproduce the blue sky, clear water, green mountains and jungles in China. The service level of tourism professionals and the quality of the general public are very important to establish a good city image. Tourism professionals are required to love their jobs, have a strong sense of service and good service attitude, have excellent business knowledge and superb service skills, and must also have good moral quality, excellent organizational skills and communication skills. Through publicity and education, enhance the public's awareness of tourism culture and improve the public's civilized quality. It is necessary not only to establish the concept of "hospitality, guests first" in the tourism industry, but also to turn this concept into the conscious behavior of all citizens, so that scenic spots can become smiling scenic spots and cities can become smiling cities.

4. Broaden funding channels and increase investment in tourism. First of all, we should establish a normal government investment mechanism, with fixed special funds and loans for tourism every year, which are mainly used for supporting funds for tourism product development and facility construction projects. Secondly, the establishment of a tourism development fund can levy a certain percentage of turnover on all tourism enterprises. Third, adopt the principles of "joint efforts of the state, localities, departments, collectives and individuals" and "whoever invests will benefit" to mobilize the enthusiasm of all sectors of society and absorb social funds through multiple channels. Fourth, direct financing, raising funds for tourism development through issuing stocks and bonds. Fifth, foreign capital can be introduced in the form of joint venture, cooperation, sole proprietorship, equity transfer and property right replacement for the construction and development of tourist attractions, facilities, commodities, entertainment and transportation.

5. Strengthen the construction of tourism legal system and standardize the order of tourism market. Market economy is a legal economy, and the establishment of a standardized legal system is conducive to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of tourists, standardizing the behavior of tourism operators, and developing and protecting tourism resources, which is an important guarantee for the sustainable development of tourism. It is necessary to carry out legal education in depth and improve the legal awareness and legal concept of the tourism industry. Maintain the normal operation order of the tourism market, standardize the service quality level, curb the abnormal price reduction competition between hotels and travel agencies, and safeguard the interests of the normal operation of the industry. Establish a tourism market supervision team, check the implementation of tourism laws and regulations, and severely investigate and deal with illegal business practices. Improve the tourism complaint system and earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of tourists.

It is necessary to strengthen regional tourism economic cooperation, realize complementary advantages through cooperation, expand the tourism market and enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of regional tourism. It is necessary not only to strengthen domestic tourism software and hardware facilities, but also to strengthen ties with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, Southeast Asia, Western Europe and North America, extensively carry out tourism economic cooperation, and broaden overseas tourist markets.