Having visited Hong Kong, Japan and living in Singapore, I have this thought: if Hong Kong has idyllic Lantau island for domestic sight-seeing and Japan has its lovely Hokkaido for similar purposes for its residents, what is Singapore's equivalent?
It is easy to arrive at an answer and that would be none other than our very own Sentosa. As a citizen of Singapore, Sentosa used to hold many beautiful memories during my childhood days with it many first places of interests such as the Pioneers of Singapore (oops, so long ago, I don't think I get the name correct) and butterflies park, just to name a few. Sentosa was not that developed yet.
Fast forward a decade later, the development plans of Sentosa did go awry, I no longer enjoy Sentosa, with some very unattractive places of interest like volcanicland, its so unexciting and come to think of it, it is so ironical right? Our neighbouring countries are having those volcano problems, here we are building a fake one and aims to attract tourists to come!
Anyway, these plans did not bear the fruits as expected and Sentosa did not do really well few years back. Fast forward again to today, Sentosa is on a revamp once again, with the building of the integrated resorts as well as the up and coming Universal Studios!
Wow, Universal Studios at Sentosa is real great! But there is one aspect I do not like and I sure applies the same to other tourists, which is the very hot and humid climate of Singapore. It is hard to enjoy oneself and with family and friends in such hot and humid weather.
I hope Singapore Universal studios will really live up to its name. I visited Hong Kong Disneyland in April and was so disappointed! There was an article today in the Straits Times today that highlighted how Hong Kong Disneyland is making a loss and there is now even further points of concern as Disneyland Shanghai is on the cards and there is a lot of expectation for a great Disneyland that lives up to its name in Disneyland Shanghai.
Thus, I really hope Singapore Universal Studios will offer visitors a great experience! This experience needs not be a replica of the experience of Universal Studios in US or Osaka, but it must be an experience which is truly memorable, unforgettable to tourists, else Singapore will lose its competitve edge in tourism to other countries which can easily build large entertainment districts with the vast expanse of land they have.
For the record, Sentosa is now doing fine and the expectation, as well as the crowds which hit the island is rising in numbers by the day and yes, Sentosa can be our equivalent of Japan's Hokkaido and Hong Kong's Lantau island!
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