Tourism a very competitive industry tourism essay

In April 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the decision to repeal the 40-year gambling ban as a foregone conclusion, to proceed with the development of two Integrated Resorts in Singapore after many rounds of intensive discussion. He decided to develop the Marina South resort and Sentosa resort, which are the two integrated resorts – Marina Bay Sands and Resort world Sentosa nowadays. ” We are not considering a casino, but an IR – an Integrated Resort. The integrated resorts will have all kinds of amenities. The great majority will not be there to gamble, but within this large development and slew of activities, there is one small but essential part – casino which offers gaming and which helps make the entire project financially viable. (Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 2005)” This decision sparked off wide scale debate among Singaporeans, particularly those who objected to having a casino at doorsteps, on the basis of religious and moral grounds. For this, Prime Minister Mr. Lee promised that there would be safeguards to limit the bad social impact of casino gambling. For example, restricting locals enter the casino – a patron of the family members can stop him or her to enter the casino and gamble inside. There is a steep entrance fee of S$100 each person or S$2, 000 for a year and a system to the exclusion of all Singaporeans. In addition, the casino will not be allowed to expand credit local population (Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang 2005). However, except the afraid of gambling addiction, illegal money lending, money laundering, loan sharks or organized crime, people also worry about their living condition: rising in housing price, over crowded transportation, more cost of living. Anyway, an integrated resort is actually a planned development that is capital intensive, largely self-contained, leisure focused, and operated by a corporation. In many areas integrated resorts are operated as touristic enclaves focusing on sand, sun, sea, spa, gambling (Jenkins and Pigram 2003). The aim of these two integrated resorts in Singapore is to boost the tourism industry and also the related service industry like hospitality, retail and other industries such as healthcare, aviation. It is deemed the answer to Singapore’s quest to be the must visit destination which offering a wide range of entertainment experiences for the leisure and business visitors. Finally opened in 2010, expect the gaming facilities, both integrated resort has added a wide range of attractions and facilities to landscape, they played a substantive part in the growth of tourism sector. Along with the recovery of the global economy and new tourism offerings, Singapore welcomed 13. 2 million visitor arrivals in 2001. New attractions like Sky-park, Universal Studio Singapore, celebrity chefs, restaurants and museums. What is more, the two resorts offers more than 33, 500 square meters of MICE space and over 4, 000 hotel rooms, which brought S$22. 3 billion in Tourism Receipts (MTI 2012a). This project attract a lot of foreign investment and improve the GDP of Singapore at the same time. Moreover, the two integrated resorts lead to social impacts like Singapore’s profile as a leading MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) destinations will be raised. In addition, the integrated resorts spin off residential and infrastructure developments in their surrounding areas. These result in the creation of many new jobs. Majority of the integrated resorts’ outsourcing or procurement contracts were secured by Singapore local small and medium enterprises in areas such as floral services, show set, prop design, laundry, catering, transportation and security. This opportunity provide lower skilled and older workers more chance to find a better paying job. The environmental impact of the integrated resort is mirrored in land use intensification, and the making of a world class site for entertainment, finance and other high-end service. A greater intensification implies higher consumption of fuel and use of water resources. Both fuel and water are imported commodities that require revenues generated from the integrated resort to acquire them. Nevertheless, the environmental impact is expected to be manageable and is unlikely to be noticeable to the surrounding environment. Within the notion of economic sustainability, whilst the environmental impact is seen as manageable and the cultural impact is speculative at this stage, the social effect is perceived to be at the highest stake of the IR (Wong, Yuen, Goldblum 2008).

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The growing demand for more and more people all over the world result in the rapid growth of tourism and hotel sectors. The most famous tourism attraction and integrated resort concentrated place would sure be Las Vegas, U. S. A. Located in a valley, Las Vegas is surrounded by desolate desert and semi-desert. Little in rainfall, the temperature difference between winter and summer is very large. Influenced by the foehn Qin Nuoke, extremely hot in summer, can reach a maximum temperature of 50 degrees Celsius; in winters, it is cold with sand blown by the wind and occasional heavy rains which can cause floods. Under a natural condition like this, there was no way for developing normal agriculture activities in this town. So make use of the land and build up a modern city with thousands of buildings is a good way to develop this town. 1931, in order to ride out the economic difficulties caused by the Great Depression took place in the United States, the Nevada state passed a bill of gambling legalization. From then on, Las Vegas rising rapid, become a world famous gambling destination. Even though Las Vegas became a gambling destination was a last-ditch move, but having such a barren land into a world famous city is what people have never thought about. Since the casino is a gold bowl, tycoons across the United States came to invest to build casinos in Las Vegas, then even the Japanese magnates, Arabian Princes, and many wealthy famous actors. The gamble industry brings along the development of tourism industry and entertainment industry. World’s famous song and dance groups as well as international movie stars and singers are proud of themselves for been able to board the the gorgeous big stage in Las Vegas, therefore attracts many tourists approach to enjoy their performances. In 1990 Chinatown came to this flourishing city, soon it became the Asian Americans’ gathering place. Because all of these, Las Vegas proved to be one of the fastest growing cities in America, while the gambling industry is an important economic pillar in the region. Casinos in Las Vegas are mainly concentrated in two areas, the old city, which is Las Vegas Downtown, it was the original development place of the city. Declined before, but in recent years, the government are trying to rebuild and do some recycling work on the streets and blocks to retrieve visitors. As for the Las Vegas Strip, it is the nexus for the new open casinos and hotels, can be called as the gateway of Las Vegas. Located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, Caesar’s Palace renowned for its magnificent beauty and impeccable service in worldwide. Built in 1854, this majestic Las Vegas hotel offers 129, 000 square foot of casino, 26 restaurants and cafes, extensive gardens and swimming pools, a world-class spa, and the famous Colosseum spotlighting world-class stars (Caesars Palace 2012).” What it (Las Vegas) needed was a little true opulence. We wanted to create the feeling that everyone in the hotel was a Caesar (Sarno 1960s).” So Mr. Sarno named the resort Caesars Palace, leaving the apostrophe off intentionally. On August 5, 1966, Sarno opened Caesars Palace. It was the first of the themed casino that eventually became synonymous with Las Vegas (Papa 2009). It was not the gambling that attracted people. It was the fantasy.” (Feldman 1960s). Besides the casino, there still have a lot of points of interest. Sands Expo Convention Center, Las Vegas Convention Center, shoppes at the Palazzo, Fashion Show Mall and Adventure Dome Theme Park. What’s more, the Colosseum in Caesar Palace holds star concert like Celine Dion in 16 January 2013 (refer to Appendix 1), Shania Twain in 19 March 2013 (refer to Appendix 2), Elton John’s piano performance – ” The Million Dollar Piano” (refer to Appendix 3), and special appearances like the Food University during 27 – 29 March 2013 (refer to Appendix 4 and 5). The most interesting one might be the Food University. Unlike any other food festival or culinary event, Food University offers food lovers a chance to rub elbows with top chefs, sommeliers, mixologists, cheese experts, fine food purveyors and even farmers – who will serve as Food University ” faculty”- because they learn curriculum in three exciting days presented at the iconic Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. These ” scholars” will not only eat, drink and learn in the presence of praised chefs, in fact, they will enthusiastically put on their chef whites, dedicate themselves to expand their knowledge on the nuance creating extraordinary cuisine from celebrity chefs ” Professor” (Caesars Palace event and entertainment 2013a). Sponsored by cookware manufacturer Fagor America and The Daily Meal, Spanfeller Media Group’s (SMG) mega food site, the Food University student only need to pay $1, 995 which included the hotel and airfare for each person. This event can not only attract people who are in fond of culinary, but also other visitors. People would come around for this special evet, and after the event, they would like to stay in Caesar Palace for some more days to enjoy the whole Las Vegas, which makes the customers stay longer and the room occupancy higher. As it may, the casino is the top entertainment that makes the most money for any integrated resort without any doubt. But about the casinos, there is a gambling tax been charged. It is be used or redirected for other social, educational and welfare needs. However, though gambling could serve as a means od state accumulation, the potential costs that were observed in the Indian reserve such as gambling addiction, alcoholism and rising domestic violence were a trade-off that could not be overlooked (Skea 1997). In the United States and Australia, adverse effects cited include the rise in pathological gamblers and social problems in the proximity of casinos (Low 2005), which is seen as a countering factor to social sustainability. So this entertainment still need to be controlled in a much more powerful way. Comparing the integrated resorts with the traditional resorts,