Singapore, an island city-state off southern Malaysia, is a global financial center with a tropical climate and multicultural population. It is among the most favored tourist places in the world. The tourism industry in Singapore is a major contributor to the economy of the country. The total number of tourists in Singapore per year continues to grow and in 2010 was more than 11 million, which is more than the population of the country.
According to a report, the average stay per visitor in Singapore is 3.86 days.
Singapore in Sanskrit means “Lion City”. According to the monks, the city gets its power from the lions that once supposedly roamed here.
Singapore, declared its independence in 1965, an island with over 5 million inhabitants and only 700 square km, has one the prize Asia’s greenest city in 2016.
In this post, you’ll learn more about Singapore’s unique approach to environmental sustainability.
Sustainable Living in Singapore
The Marina Barrage, the world’s largest urban hydro dam reservoir, is transforming Singapore’s downtown city core.
With well water resource and waste management, the Singapore government has focused also on stimulating land developers to incorporate green technology into the design and construction of all new buildings or renovate older buildings to the new standards. The government puts efforts to make green buildings mandatory in the near future.
The tourism industry involves the hospitality sector in it and hospitality has a great impact on the environment and natural resources of the country. Hotels, food, and beverage companies should take great care of the natural environment around them.
The country attracts the world’s top eco architects and uses the latest and innovative technologies in developing eco-construction large-scale projects for green zones and sustainable architecture. A great example of this are the skyscrapers built as sustainable ecosystems – Fusionopolis, Solaris Tower or the EDITT Tower integrate vegetation for cooling, generate solar power and transform wastewater into biogas.
Leveraging tourism to promote sustainable development will require a tough balancing act between development and sustainability.
The government of Singapore has provided funds for tourism development in the country and its goal is to triple the incomes from tourism. Such an example is the state-funded project, where a vast eco-tourism zone is creating in a bid to bring in more visitors with a jungle for a bird park, a rainforest park and a 400-room resort to create a green tourism hub.
The new bird park – which will replace an existing one elsewhere in Singapore – will feature nine aviaries, while the rainforest park will have walkways among treetop canopies.
Singapore has already established itself as a global leader in sustainability, with hosting international events such as the World Cities Summit, Singapore International Water Week, Singapore International Energy Week and Green UrbanScape Asia to gather together world leaders and share best practices water issues and urban environment.
Companies have focused on creating immersive and meaningful experiences for travelers and sustainable tourism, or eco-tourism is quickly becoming a big part of it.
“Travellers these days are more affluent and largely looking for never before experiences. They are well educated and conscious about not leaving carbon foot-prints behind as they travel. Sustainable tourism is, hence, getting more popular as it comes with this feel-good factor of giving back.” – said Alicia Seah, Dynasty Travel’s director of marketing and communications.
Singapore’s eco-friendly hotel business is booming and some examples for that are the tri-tower Marina Bay Sands Hotel or the organic terraced ParkRoyal.
One major characteristic for the country is the little to no corruption, and this combined with a liberal government, the higher percentage millionaires and a hugely successful economy, is a model of urban environmental sustainability. The country scored near-perfect Yale EPI ratings in health impacts, air quality, water resources, sanitation, agriculture and climate, and energy.
“By being clean and green, our aim has been to show that our country is well-run,” says Mr. Khoo Teng Chye, executive director at the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC)
Other popular eco-tourism destinations include the Maldives, Australia, Thailand, Bali, as well as Guilin and Lijiang in China
Want to learn more about Greenland? Check our other sustainable travel posts.
