This marks the farewell of the Singapore Arts Festival and perhaps be the last post in this blog.
The Singapore Arts Festival this year was a new experience for me, and i really enjoyed it. Hope to visit it sometime again in the future (:
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tourism Benefits
Tourism Benefits
Through the Singapore Arts Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, there are several benefits that can surface through this event
Temporary employment – a large amount of temporary employment can be created through these two events. During the period of the festival, there will be a need for temporary employment as they don’t need many of these staffs to work for long term as it would be wasting their resource. Examples of such temporary employment are ushers, shuttle drivers, ticketing officers and security guards.
Tourist receipts – Foreign tourists who visit the Singapore Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe are bound to spend some form of money when visiting the host nation, be it for shopping, food, or transportation.
Tax revenue – Many of the organisations will experience an increase in sales for their products during the festival period, and when their revenue increase, they also must pay more tax. Therefore, tax revenue for the government increases.
Tourism numbers – the number of tourists who visit the host nation during the period of the festival would definitely increase, thus the tourism numbers for the host nation would increase.
Host nation profile – as there will most likely be some form of media coverage during the duration of the event, therefore, the profile of the host nation, be it Singapore or the UK will also most likely increase.
Business opportunities – there will be organisations who will be tempted, or want to visit Singapore or the UK for BTMICE activities during the duration of the event. Therefore, there will also be an increase in the number of BTMICE activities for the industry.
Through the Singapore Arts Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, there are several benefits that can surface through this event
Temporary employment – a large amount of temporary employment can be created through these two events. During the period of the festival, there will be a need for temporary employment as they don’t need many of these staffs to work for long term as it would be wasting their resource. Examples of such temporary employment are ushers, shuttle drivers, ticketing officers and security guards.
Tourist receipts – Foreign tourists who visit the Singapore Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe are bound to spend some form of money when visiting the host nation, be it for shopping, food, or transportation.
Tax revenue – Many of the organisations will experience an increase in sales for their products during the festival period, and when their revenue increase, they also must pay more tax. Therefore, tax revenue for the government increases.
Tourism numbers – the number of tourists who visit the host nation during the period of the festival would definitely increase, thus the tourism numbers for the host nation would increase.
Host nation profile – as there will most likely be some form of media coverage during the duration of the event, therefore, the profile of the host nation, be it Singapore or the UK will also most likely increase.
Business opportunities – there will be organisations who will be tempted, or want to visit Singapore or the UK for BTMICE activities during the duration of the event. Therefore, there will also be an increase in the number of BTMICE activities for the industry.
Purpose
Purpose
Personally, I feel that one of the purpose of the Singapore Arts Festival is to promote Singapore as a cultural hub among the region, Asia. By promoting us as a regional cultural hub, we would be able to promote and encourage artistes from all over the world to showcase their talents in Singapore frequently. And when they do so, the demand for arts in Singapore would gradually increase over time.
Beside promoting the demand for arts in Singapore, through the Singapore Arts Festival, I feel that more and more artistic talents can also be developed through this platform, and also, more and more artistic talents can emerge from the community as the festival goes on from time to time.
Personally, I feel that one of the purpose of the Singapore Arts Festival is to promote Singapore as a cultural hub among the region, Asia. By promoting us as a regional cultural hub, we would be able to promote and encourage artistes from all over the world to showcase their talents in Singapore frequently. And when they do so, the demand for arts in Singapore would gradually increase over time.
Beside promoting the demand for arts in Singapore, through the Singapore Arts Festival, I feel that more and more artistic talents can also be developed through this platform, and also, more and more artistic talents can emerge from the community as the festival goes on from time to time.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders
Stakeholders refer to anyone that will be affected directly with the actions of an organisation. In the case of the Singapore Arts Festival, there are several stakeholders that we can observe.
Firstly, the Singapore Art Festival’s organising committee itself. They get affected by any form of changes that they make, or gets affected by any changes by any other stakeholders directly. They are also the core of the success that the Arts Festival have achieved in recent years.
Secondly, the performers. Without them, the Singapore Arts Festival would not be anywhere near the heights it has achieved today. They provide the entertainment, the fun, the pleasure and the feast to the eyes that visitors to the festival would want to experience.
Who are the ones that watch the performers? Yes, the audience is also another important stakeholder to the Singapore Arts Festival. Audiences provide a form of revenue to the Singapore Arts Festival. Audiences provide success to the programmes in the Singapore Arts Festival. With audience, sponsors would be attracted to sponsor the festival. Audience provides the encouragement to the performers and with audience, performers would want to perform with all their heart. So, audience is another key stakeholder in the Singapore Arts Festival.
Sponsors are the organisations or people that provide support to the Singapore Arts Festival. They provide every kind of help that the organising committee would want to have. From financial support to logistics support. From manpower to venue provision and to marketing support. As long as sponsors are available, the festival would have a strong supporter by her side.
The media is next. The media provides extensive advertisement support to the Singapore Arts Festival. Channel 5, Okto TV, these are the official TV station and supporting TV station respectively. Without them, how many of us would get to know of the Singapore Arts Festival so well? I believe not many.
Now to the co-workers. The backstage crew and supporting staffs that made the event possible to everyone. The logistics people, the backstage staff, and such staffs include lighting staff, sound-man amongst others. Without them, the effects of the festival wouldn’t be there, the success of the festival would also not be as huge as it is today.
These stakeholders are interlinked to one another. Without anyone of them, the rest would not be able to function at all. Even if they were able to function, they would definitely not be able to operate so effectively.
Pictures Part 2
The people from my class that went for Helios (most of them are in this picture)
Coursemates that went to Helios as well
Sparklers coming out of the cricket's feelers (i suppose)
Almost to the Finale....
THE FINALE OF THE OPENING CEREMONY! FIREWORKS
Best Practices
Product
The main products of both the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Singapore Arts Festival are the performances or programmes by organised and planned by the festival organisers. Be it from musicals, to concerts, to dance, or even to kids shows, as long as they are performances or programmes organised by the festival organisers, be it at the Singapore Arts Festival or the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, they can be considered as a product, or part of the product.
Besides this main product, there is also supporting, or facilitating products that enhances our experience on the main product, the performances. The supporting products can include shuttle services to and fro the festival venue, the complimentary drinks given to festival visitors, or the usher service provided at the venue. These products serve to enhance the satisfaction of the festival visitors. During the Singapore Arts Festival, these products indeed enhanced my experience at the Helios and the Saman Traditional Dance.
Place
Festival Fringe and the Singapore Arts Festival, I feel that they are quite similar in terms of how they spread out the venues of the festival.
For the Singapore Arts Festival, the venues for the festival programmes are evenly spread out throughout the whole of Singapore, and not just on the town area of Singapore, or at the various theatres. Programmes can be found in the east (Tampines), North (Yishun), Central(Toa Payoh), and of course quite a number of locations in the town and Marina area.
Figure 1: taken from http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/pdf/ArtsFest_Maps_Acrobat_6.pdf
For the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the venues of the programmes were evenly spread out throughout the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. With an approximate size of 259km2, spreading out the venues of the programmes gives visitors to the festival an opportunity to see the programmes from the festival without having the need to travel long distances just to see the programmes.
I feel that spreading out of venues is a very good move by both the festival organisers. It brings the festival closer to the festival visitors and I feel, was able to prevent congestion in a sense as people don’t have to crowd at one particular area just for the various programmes available in the festival.
Besides preventing congestion, it also brings the visitors closer to the festival itself. For me, having to be able to watch the show at VivoCity where it is very convenient for me due to the Tourism Academy of Sentosa brings me closer to the Singapore Arts Festival that what it would have been if there wasn’t any programmes close to me.
Figure 2: taken from http://www.edfringe.com/maps/html/9.html (part of the city map)
Price
Both the Singapore Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe offers both ticketed programmes and free programmes. The prices of the ticketed performances can have a large variation, depending on the types of performance and who the performer is. Ticket prices for the Singapore Arts Festival can go from just over $10 to over $100, and the prices for the tickets for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe also vary, although exact variation are not known.
A slight difference between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Singapore Arts Festival is that the Singapore Arts Festival provides a larger number of free programmes. Although both are festivals that plan to attract a fair amount of tourists, the Singapore Arts Festival places a relatively large emphasis on Singaporeans who wishes to enjoy art performances without having the need to pay. (just like me)
Partnership
One of the main partners of both the Singapore Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe are the sponsors for the event. The following is the list of sponsors for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Figure 3
Figure 4: Taken from http://www.edfringe.com/area.html?r_menu=global&id=186
In the supporters section, although some of these organisations provide funds to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it does not want to be recognised as sponsors. The reason of this is that they do not want to let people have the idea that they are providing donations, or taxes for the festival, instead of using if for other purposes.
The sponsors of the Singapore Arts Festival are as follows.
Figure 5
Figure 6: Taken from http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/sponsor/
Sponsors may not necessary only provide financial support. They may also provide other kinds of support such as manpower, logistics, marketing, provision of venues, among other kinds of sponsorship.
Promotion
The Singapore Arts Festival gains certain degree of loyalty from many people locally as well as globally from the free membership that it offers, the ArtFest club membership. Not only is the ArtFest club membership is free, it does not expire as well. The best thing is that the membership provides plenty of benefits during the Art Festival period annually. The ArtFest club membership also provides its member with the latest information and updates on the festival. By using this membership to build a relationship with potential festival visitors, it brings the potential visitors closer to the festival, and brings the festival closer to the potential visitors as well.
The Singapore Arts Festival introduced several kinds of promotions to attract visitors to their programmes. By having partnerships with the different sponsors, they are able to provide discounts at various locations as stated on their website. For example, ArtFest club members can enjoy a different room rate at the Marina Mandarin Hotel. Ticket holders can also enjoy discounts at their F&B outlets. Besides this, they can also enjoy discounts at many other locations as long as they have either the ArtFest club membership, or is a ticket holder to the festival program. This makes me want to be an ArtFest club member as well.
For the Edinbugh Festival Fringe, there is also a similar membership to increase loyalty among visitors. Myfringe, the membership, is also available to the public for free. Myfringe allows their members to plan their schedule of what they want to visit, and also to buy tickets online. However, there is no special privileges to the members when they visit the sponsors or when they purchase the tickets.
Programming
The programme of the Singapore Arts Festival is designed in such a way that there will be programmes available to visitors everyday throughout the duration of the festival. Free performances and ticketed performances are available everyday throughout the festival. Programmes ranging from dance, to drama, to musicals, to concerts are available almost everyday throughout the four weeks festival. Performances from European groups, to Asian groups, to South American groups, to groups from the Oceania region, to African groups, or to groups from the USA, as long as you name it, you can find it in the festival.
Similarly, visitors can also find an extensive range of programmes available to them in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. However, as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a larger scale event as compared to the Singapore Arts Festival, many of the programmes that are available there are premiers, be it world premier, Europe premier, or UK premier.
For the programming, I feel that the organisers of the Singapore Arts Festival should be commended for being able to create such a wide range of programmes with such limited space that they have. Not only are they able to make do with whatever space they have, they are also able to make the festival into such a success, which is a very good job done.
People
The people, or the cast of the Singapore Art Festivals’ programmes, provide a key role in the experience that the audience or the visitors receive. During Helios, which is the opening ceremony of the Singapore Arts Festival, the introduction of the performance, or their entrance, was made to look so grand, and there were plenty of interaction between the stilt walkers and the audience near them. This allows the audience to have a better experience and is vital to their success in the performance.
Besides this, the hospitality provided by the festival organisers was very good. During my visits to Helios, and the Saman traditional dance, the ushers were all very willing in providing directions to me and were all very willing in providing any sort of assistance that they could provide. This also is a very important factor that constitutes to the experience of the visitors.
Packaging and Distribution
There are several packages available at the Singapore Arts Festival are group packages, which gives a buyer a 15% discount if he/she purchases tickets to 4 or more shows, or to a group purchase of 15 tickets at one go to any of the program. There are also promotions given to students as well as ArtFest club members. With these promotions and packages, people, especially students, are able to purchase tickets at a discounted rate.
Like many other events in Singapore, the main distributing channel for the Singapore Arts Festival is of course Sistic. Interested buyers can buy their tickets online at the Sistic website www.sistic.com.sg, through phone (63485555), or any of the 25 Sistic outlets located around Singapore, as well as in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang in Malaysia, as well as in Indonesia. How convenient can that get??? But of course, Sistic charges a booking fee of $1 for every ticket below $20, and a booking fee of $3 for every ticket priced above $20.
For the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, online ticketing if one of their main, if not the main source of distribution. By signing up to Myfringe, a buyer would be allowed to purchase tickets online at their website. There are also ticket offices that allow someone to buy tickets there. Of course, phone booking is also available in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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