Orchard’s Road recent 40 million makeover
40 million is a lot of money for this period, when the world is deep in recession. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB), having gotten its hands on such a sum, had used it to carry out a makeover of Orchard Road, ‘Singapore’s Premier Shopping Street’. Changes made include new cutting-edge street lighting, new street furniture, decorative glass panels and potted flower totems. These changes were made in the hope of attracting more tourists to the area and thus continue helping the economy during the time of recession.I feel that all these changes have been a big waste of money. Forty percent of people polled recently by LifeStyle did not notice any changes and even so, half of the other sixty percent could only name one change among the many that STB has named. If such a small amount of people can notice much changes made, how would this help attract tourists? Furthermore, some have also found fault with the various installations and changes. One such is that the orchards planted there were mostly dead or collected as souvenirs in just a few weeks. These changes may also only have a temporary attraction, thus not an ideal investment.
Not only are these changes full of fault, during the process of the makeover, the STB may also have lost quite a number of potential tourists. Having been visted Orchard Road last year, I was greated by a greater makeover of shops being surrounded by “Work in Progress” signs. This was also accompanied by the "pleasant music" of construction work. Most of the malls were blocked by all the signs and dust was everywhere. What a wonderful way to welcome tourists.
The money should have been put to better use in other areas of the nation, especially during this period of recession. 40 million could have helped many families carry through this recession or help get them new jobs. This would have been a much better long term investment for Singapore's citizens than attracting more tourists. Besides, Orchard Road has always been described favourably in guidebooks and tourists have been flocking there before the recession. There's this saying, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it," STB should have followed this and the money could have been poured into something more productive.
