By NISHA RAMCHANDANI

SINGAPORE’S tourism in-dustry is chugging alongquite nicely, judging by itsfirst quarter report card.

According to the Q1 per-formance report releasedby the Singapore Tourism

Board (STB) yesterday, tour-ism receipts jumped 35.7per cent year-on-year to$4.98 billion as all sectors –shopping, accommodation,food & beverage (F&B),sightseeing & entertain-ment as well as others –saw positive growth.

Sightseeing & entertain-ment, which includes gam-ing, posted the highestgrowth of 321 per cent.

Meanwhile, internation-al visitor arrivals rose 15.7

per cent in Q1 2011 to 3.12million, with markets suchas Indonesia, China, Malay-sia, Australia, and Indiamaking up 53 per cent of allarrivals.

However, it was HongKong, the Philippines, andThailand which saw the big-gest growth out of the top15 markets in the quarter,with visitor arrivals fromHong Kong rising by 42 percent, the Philippines by 39per cent, and Thailand by38 per cent.

For the hospitality indus-try, gazetted hotel room rev-enue came in at $478 mil-lion, up 9.8 per cent fromQ110.

Overall, the averageroom rate was $226, whichrepresents a 13.9 per centincrease, as room rates forall four hotel tiers werehigher. Economy hotelsposted the biggest increasein room rate, rising 24.2per cent.

The overall average oc-

cupancy rate climbed 1.3percentage point to 85 percent, helped by higher occu-pancies in the upscale andeconomy tiers.

Occupancy growth wasflat for the mid-tier sectorand fell 0.9 percentagepoint for the luxury sector.

This resulted in a 15.7per cent growth in revenueper ava i lab le room(RevPAR) to $191. All fourhotel tiers saw an improve-ment in RevPAR in Q1, al-though economy hotels saw

RevPAR power ahead by30.3 per cent.

The STB’s report alsoshowed that final estimatesfor tourism receipts for2010 totalled $18.9 billion,a 50 per cent increase. Itwas previously announcedthat Singapore receivedsome 11.6 million touristslast year.

This year, the STB isaiming to reach a record12-13 million visitor arriv-als and $22-24 billion intourism receipts.

By EMILYN YAP

THE tender for a 99-yearleasehold residential site atBuangkok Drive/SengkangEast Drive closed yesterdaywith just four bidders in thefray.

Qingdao Construction(Singapore) submitted thetop bid of $247 million or$391 per square foot perplot ratio (psf ppr).

The bid is within marketexpectations and is just 3per cent above the nexthighest bid of $239.8 mil-lion or $380 psf ppr, whichcame from a tie-up be-tween Lum Chang BuildingContractors and a unit ofFrasers Centrepoint.

A Centurion Propertiesunit and Best Desire Invest-ments also took part in thetender. Best Desire, whichis not incorporated in Singa-pore, put in the lowest bidof $145.2 million or $230psf ppr.

The site is near KangkarLRT Station but is some dis-tance away from BuangkokMRT Station. It is next toAustville Residences, an ex-

ecutive condominiumproject launched early thisyear.

The “moderate tenderresponse and bids” reflectthe plot’s location in the“less busy part” of Seng-kang and Upper Seran-goon, said Credo Real Es-tate executive director OngTeck Hui.

With a maximum grossfloor area of around631,300 sq ft, the site canyield an estimated 550units.

CB Richard Ellis execu-tive director Li Hiaw Ho ex-pec ts the pro jec t ’ sbreakeven cost to bearound $760-$780 psf.

Credo’s Mr Ong expectsthe project to have an aver-age selling price of around$800-850 psf.

Caveats lodged with theauthorities show that atThe Quartz nearby, unitsc h a n g e d h a n d s a t$837-963 psf betweenApril and May. At H2O Resi-dences at Sengkang WestAvenue/Fernvale Link,units went for $916-$1,020psf in May.

By KELLY TAY

AFTER the brief came ThePitch – Singapore PressHoldings’ (SPH) reality com-petition that saw advertis-ing agencies conceptualisea cross-media brand cam-paign for Paragon Shop-ping Centre.

Close to 800 guests at-tended the grand finals lastnight at the Fairmont Singa-pore, where three finalistsvied for the first prize of$20,000 in cash, $250,000worth of media creditsfrom SPH, and the GoldenCleaver Award.

Ultimately, this went tothe three-person team fromBBDO/Proximity Singaporewith their media agencyPHD, which comprisedplanning director Tan WeeHoon, creative group headDaniel Kee and businessmanager Cheri Kim Lim.

Coming in second wasJWT Singapore/Mindshare,while Bates 141/Maxus Glo-bal clinched third place.

With their tag line, TheOther Side of Luxury,BBDO/Proximity wowedthe judges with their effec-tive maximisation of SPH’sdifferent media platforms.

These were grouped in-to six media activation “but-tons” – On Print, Online, OnMobile, On Ground, On Air,and On Screen.

“We didn’t want to just

build a brand campaign,”said Ms Tan. “In the end,we wanted something thatcan deliver the business re-sults, that pushes people in-to the mall to buy things.”

Said Mr Kee: “I thinkour team really kept ourcampaign grounded. At eve-ry step of the way, weasked ourselves if we wereanswering the questions ofthe original brief. We alsoused all six of SPH’s mediaplatforms.”

Geoff Tan, seniorvice-president and head ofstrategic marketing at SPH,agreed that BBDO/Proximi-

ty’s effective use of the dif-ferent platforms was cru-cial.

“Tonight wasn’t justabout the competition; itwas also about the ‘SPH isOn’ ideology. We don’t justsell print advertising space– we sell solutions,” hesaid.

“We want people to seethat we are a valued part-ner and that we can helpyou get your advertisingmessage out, simply be-cause we have enough me-dia products,” stressed MrTan.

In conjunction with thecompetition’s grand finals,

SPH also hosted its firstlarge-scale trade event forprofessionals from the ad-vertising industry yester-day, where they experi-enced the different engage-ment platforms via an inter-active exhibition.

Both The Pitch and thetrade show seem to havedone their job, with moreagencies learning aboutSPH’s offerings for futureclients and accounts.

“I honestly thought thecompetition was a verygood exercise – SPH is defi-nitely keeping up with thetimes,” said Mr Kee with alaugh.

Buangkok site gets$247m top bid

By UMA SHANKARITHE Housing & Develop-ment Board (HDB) will re-lease some 1,000 left-overflats accumulated from pre-vious launches under its“sale of balance flats” exer-cise later this year – boost-ing the total flat supply for2011 to 26,000 units.

Just last week, HDBramped up the supply forthe full year from 22,000units to 25,000 units. Thiswas done by bringing for-ward the projects plannedfor the first quarter of 2012by a couple of months.

And yesterday, HDBsaid the supply will be in-creased further after Na-tional Development Minis-ter Khaw Boon Wan askedthe government agency tolook into releasing the1,000 left-over units.

“We have some 1,000balance units accumulatedfrom earlier sale exercis-es,” Mr Khaw said in hisHousing Matters blog yes-terday. “With these, we arelooking at a total supply of26,000 units by year-end.”

Mr Khaw also said thatthe 4,000 new flats HDB re-leased across six projects atthe end of last month – thelargest supply of new flatsever rolled out at one go –drew around 13,000 appli-cations.

This gives an applica-tion rate of over three times– similar to the applicationrate for new HDB flatslaunched in April, and low-

er than the applicationrates of five times for theFebruary launch and seventimes for the March launch.

“With this launch, wehave offered about 12,000units this year, leaving an-other 13,000 units to belaunched in the next sevenmonths,” Mr Khaw said.

“With monthly launch,this will mean an averagelaunch size of about 1,800units, smaller than the re-cent launch of 4,000 units.F o r t h e J u n e B T O(build-to-order) currentlybeing prepared, we arelooking to launch about2,100 flats in Bukit Panjangand Sengkang.”

By TEH SHI NING

BOOST healthcare spend-ing; reform incentives fordoctors; and rope in thecommunity to grow an eco-nomically viable model ofend-of-life care in Singa-pore.

These were among theideas raised by 30 leadersfrom medical, communityand social groups whomLien Foundation consultedin a study of what can bedone to improve care forthe dying here.

Commissioned after theEconomist Intelligence Unitranked Singapore 18th outof 40 countries on its Quali-ty of Death Index last year,Living with the End in Mindis “part inquiry, part policyanalysis and part idea gen-eration”, Lien Foundationchief executive Lee PohWah said at a media confer-ence to launch the studyyesterday.

Some of those ideas willfeed into the national strate-gy for palliative care nowbeing drafted “bottom-up”style, said Jeremy Lim, ex-ecutive director of the LienCentre for Palliative Care,tasked by the Ministry ofHealth to work out this na-tional strategy.

With demand for better-quality end-of-life carebound to spike with Singa-pore’s ageing population,

there is a need for a “scala-ble and economically viablemodel of palliative care”,added the centre’s chair-man (and GIC managing di-rector) Ng Kok Song, one ofthe 30 people interviewedfor the study.

Delivered largely bynon-profit bodies reliant ondonations, palliative care inSingapore cannot be scaledto meet that demand,which will rise even fasterif – as the study’s principalanalyst and author KohBuck Song hopes – the na-tional attitude towardsdeath changes to view palli-ative care as a better alter-native to acute care.

Mr Ng and others sug-gest a shift away from “cur-ative medicine”, whichpumps money into keepinga patient alive, towards pal-liative care, focusing onquality life for the terminal-ly ill. This may require a re-allocation of resources –more healthcare spending

on palliative care subsidies,hospices and training, lead-ers said.

At present, “the econom-ics of it are perverse”, saidBenjamin Ong, CEO of theNational University HealthSystem. A patient in inten-sive care typically pays 10per cent of costs after subsi-dy, but double the share ofcosts if he opts for inpatienthospice care.

Also, a problem is thesector’s inability to attractgood doctors, as palliativecare pays significantly lessthan specialities such assurgery, says geriatric psy-chiatrist Professor Kua EeHeok.

Only with more resourc-es and a cultural shift in themedical sector is it likelythat an end-of-life care in-dustry can grow to rope incommercial players too,said Mr Lim, who is alsovice-president of privatehealthcare services groupFortis Healthcare Global.

BBDO/Proximity wins The Pitch

By LESTER HIO

FOR the first time since 2007, an individu-al has been given the President’s Awardfor the Environment.

Tan Wee Kiat has the distinction of be-ing the first person in four years to beawarded the highest accolade in Singaporefor contributions to the Republic’s environ-mental sustainability.

The first chief executive of the NationalParks Board and founding member of theSingapore Environment Council receivedthe award from President SR Nathan at theIstana yesterday alongside two institu-tions: SMRT Corporation Ltd andWoodgrove Secondary School.

The award, now in its sixth year, had27 nominations this year, up from 19 nomi-nations last year.

The increase in nominations “bodeswell for environmental consciousness andawareness in Singapore”, said Cedric Foo,chairman of the award’s judging panel.

Dr Tan is still very active in Singapore’senvironmental scene and is currently theCEO of the Gardens by the Bay project.

He credits his winning of the award tohis involvement with the National ParksBoard. “If you look at it as a human body,environment work begins with bones, ten-dons and musculature. I come from Nation-al Parks, and that’s the skin. So it’s veryeasy to be recognised for our efforts,” DrTan said.

SMRT was awarded for its proven trackrecord in environmental sustainability andin its continual efforts to reduce its opera-tional ecological footprint.

“Our green programme is very holisticin that it looks at culture-building – howwe cultivate values among staff, partners,as well as tenants, advertisers and the com-munity,” said Dawn Low, SMRT’svice-president for commercial business.

Operations-wise, SMRT has soughtgreen solutions for asset management,which led to it purchasing more eco-friend-ly buses and taxis, as well as coming upwith innovative ways to recycle productsthat have reached the end of their life cy-cles.

Woodgrove Secondary School was rec-ognised for its integrated environmentaleducation curriculum, in which issues ofenvironmental concern have been workedinto the syllabus of the sciences and hu-manities.

The students, too, take an active role inenvironmental issues, such as by organis-ing green camps for other schools in theNorth-west district.

“Through such activities, we are allow-ing the students to create possibilities forthemselves, and to sow the seeds (of envi-ronmental consciousness) when they areyoung,” said Sung Mee Har, principal ofWoodgrove Secondary School.

By MAXIE AW YEONG

MANULIFE Singapore yes-terday announced that ithas been enjoying solidbusiness growth, with totalweighted premium risingand robust sales seen forsingle-premium invest-m e n t - l i n k e d a n dhigh-net-worth plans.

It achieved $28 milliontotal weighted premium forthe period of January toApril 11, up 26 per centfrom the same period lastyear, which recorded a to-tal weighted premium of$22.2 million.

Manulife Singapore'spresident and chief execu-tive officer Annette Kingsaid: “The business momen-tum continued in Q1 thisyear to reach total weight-ed premium sales of approx-imately $20 million. April2011 saw another strongmonth with regular premi-um sales growth of 38 percent over March 2011.

“If this persists, we ex-pect 2011 to be a very posi-tive year.”

To further aid businessgrowth, Manulife Singa-pore has expanded to theeast, with its newly opened

Financial Advice and Cus-tomer Service Centre locat-ed at 9 Tampines Grande.

“Being in Tampinesgives Manulife greater prox-imity to our clients in theeastern zone,” Ms Kingsaid.

The 23,400 square feetfacility is home to about140 financial planners, andis expected to be able to sup-port up to 250 financialplanners.

Also, its head office – cur-rently situated in River Val-ley – will soon be moving toBras Basah, where therewill be more client-meetingfacilities, Ms King said.

With a current team of900 full-time financial plan-ners, it plans to double thatnumber by 2014.

Manulife Singaporeplans to grow the wealthbusiness, which comesfrom both the domestic andglobal markets, “as Singa-pore is a financial serviceshub”, Ms King said.

They will also developtheir accident and healthproducts to better cater tothe demand of Singapore-ans. “As a forward-lookingand reliable company, wehave expanded to servethem better,” Ms King said.

International visitorarrivals also rose15.7% in Q1 2011to 3.12 million

Tan Wee Kiat honoured for work on sustainability

FILE PHOTO

Dr Tan: First individual to win the President’s Awardfor the Environment since 2007

Manulife posts26% rise in totalweighted premium

Q1 tourism receipts hit $5b

Mr Khaw: 13,000 haveapplied for 4,000 newflats HDB released acrosssix projects at end-May

Ways toimprovethe end-of-life careindustry

FILE PHOTO

More TLC: Demand for better-quality palliative care isbound to spike with Singapore’s ageing population

26,000 newHDB flats thisyear: Khaw

14 SINGAPORE NEWS The Business Times, Friday, June 3, 2011

Source: The Business Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.