Comment on the amount of tourism benefits received by the host city of the chosen event

~BENEFITS~

It is definite that Singapore has received much tourism benefit from Singapore Arts Festival. Pumping an extraodinary amount of $6.5-7 Million despite the crisis, it is obvious that the Arts council would not hold the event in the same massive scale, if they do not expect the return to be more.


Since the statistics for tourists receipts for the month of June and May is not up yet, we will be using the statistics on the year 2007. In 2007, Singapore Arts Festival happened on 25th May to 24th June. In this 2 months, Singapore received tourism receipt of around 821, 248 tourists, while June sees 850,514 visitors. The numbers alone shows that during the main month of the Festival (June), there is an increase of tourism receipt by around 29,000 tourists. Therefore, we can safely say that the Festival has helped to boost the amount of tourist visit to Singapore.

With this, it can be seen that Singapore has used the Festival to promote itself as the preferred tourism destination for the month of June. Since the event is a large event comprising of International talents, there has also been media coverage of the festival in different countries, showing Singapore's power to the world, the festivity and the attractiveness that it held.
It should be noted that the festival has made some tourists to extend their stay. For a young aspiring Indonesian Artists, Ms.Lienny, who first touched the festival feel during her trip to Vivo, the RED event that she saw has made her decide to extend her stay to see other events.

With the increasing tourists visit and extended length of exisiting tourists in Singapore, we should also consider the amount of profit that the local community will benefit from and the increased tax revenue that the country will enjoy. It is obvious that event companies who is engaged in staging the event will earn much from it, but the suppliers of food, accomodation for visitors and shopping industries will also benefit. It is all a domino effect, boosting internal industries througout Singapore.

The festival not only gives more money to the community, it also creates enterpreunership opportunity and jobs for the people. For Ms. Liu Xing, a student from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, it has been difficult to get any part-time jobs for the past months due to the credit crunch. However, the festival has gave her the job and the salary that she needs.(Her job was to survey people regarding the festival, as seen on the right)

Permanent companies would seek permanent workers, but for an annual event such as this, sudden need for employment will arise.

Of course, the festival may cause inflation in the economy, but paired with the Great Singapore Sale, also happening in June and ending in July, inflation should not be a problem that the locals will face due to the festival.