For the exclusive use of Y. CHEN, 2022. SMU511 SINGAPORE’S ‘CRAZY RICH ASIANS’ EXPERIENCE OF CITY BRANDING Lionel Yeo 1, the man who helmed the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) for six years, stepped down as Chief Executive in May 2018. During his tenure, STB had secured several high­profile events such as the BNP Paribas Women’s Tennis Association Finals, The Singapore Rugby Sevens and the International Champions Cup, and extended the long­standing contract with Formula One (F1) for the Singapore Grand Prix to 2021.2 In addition, 2017 had witnessed record highs in tourist arrivals and spending, Yeo was the driving force 3 behind Singapore’s city branding campaign ‘Passion Made Possible’. 4 In March 2019, Yeo reflected on the past successes and the future challenge, Singapore is relatively well known in Asia. Our investment in the hosting of the Singapore Grand Prix over the past decade had exposed a lot of Europeans to the modern metropolis that Singapore has become and our world-beating lifestyle offerings, as the F1 fan base is strong in the UK and key European markets like Germany. However, it is still challenging to reach major segments of the North American markets, outside of the gateway cities on the eastern and western coasts. As Yeo left behind a legacy of solid achievement, what would be the next steps for STB to capture a larger share of the US inbound tourism market? ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, a movie that featured several on­location shoots in Singapore, was a timely opportunity for STB to reach a larger audience in the North America. How much had STB achieved by this pivotal collaboration? 1 While Mr Yeo had at the time of the collaboration with Warner Brothers recused himself from taking decisions in STB related to the movie Crazy Rich Asians because his wife was an actress in this production, his up­close observations of this remarkable collaboration provided for a more personal and insightful perspective than an authoritative STB response. 2 Faris Mokhtar, “Former STB Chief Executive Joins Ride­Hailing Firm Grab as CEO Advisor” TODAYonline, September 19, 2018, https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/former­stb­chief­executive­joins­ride­hailing­firm­grab­ceo­advisor, accessed March 2019. 3 Channel News Asia, “Singapore Tourism Board Chief Lionel Yeo to Step down End May”, May 14, 2018, https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore­tourism­board­chief­lionel­yeo­to­step­down­end­may­10232176, accessed March 2019. 4 The STB and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) jointly launched the ‘Passion Made Possible’ brand for Singapore in August 2017 with the aim of building a deeper and more personal connection between Singapore and potential visitors. This represented Singapore’s ‘passion­driven, never­settling spirit of determination and enterprise that constantly pursues possibilities and reinvention’. This case was written by Chee Wei Tan, Jiao Tan, Vignesh Baskaran and Professor Mark Chong at the Singapore Management University. The case was prepared solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Copyright © 2019, Singapore Management University This document is authorized for use only by YU-PING CHEN in 2022. Version: 2019-05-10 For the exclusive use of Y. CHEN, 2022. SMU­19­0010 Singapore’s ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Experience of City Branding The US Inbound Tourism Market In a study of more than 100 nations, the United States (US) was ranked 60th in international travel despite being one of the world’s largest economies. 5 Americans generally did not have an overseas travel culture. According to the BBC, only 10% of Americans had passports in 1994 although the number had increased to 42% in 2017. 6 One of the reasons for the increase in passport holders was the implementation of new laws that came into effect in 2007, requiring Americans to carry passports even if they were to visit Canada or Mexico. 7 Some of the common reasons cited by Americans for not wanting to travel overseas were the busy work culture, many places to visit within the US, and a fear of other parts of the world. According to STB’s (refer to Exhibit 1 for a brief description of STB) market insights report on the US, in 2014, 42% of working Americans did not take a single vacation day, and only 13% surveyed travelled abroad for leisure. 8 Despite that, US outbound tourism had continued its upward trend. The top six travel destinations for US travellers were Mexico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy. 9 While outbound travel to Asia had increased from 2011 to 2014, Singapore was not one of the top five travel destinations for Americans who travelled to Asia. 10 They preferred China, India, Japan, the Philippines and Hong Kong. Singapore was in 10th position, following Asian destinations such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. 11 STB’s challenge to capture more of the North American market was twofold. The first issue was the limited awareness of Singapore among US residents. A day before the Trump­Kim Summit on June 12, 2018 in Singapore, the keyword ‘Singapore’ was the most searched term on Google in the US, and one of the top related searches was: ‘Where is Singapore?’.12 Second, STB noted that when travelling abroad, US travellers were looking for authentic experiences in destinations that were culturally distinctive from their home country. 13 As a modern and westernised city, Singapore was perceived to lack the authentic Asian experience compared with other Asian destinations. In addition, Singapore was also perceived to be strict and rigid due to the coverage it had received in Western media on the country’s strict laws and regulations (e.g. the well­ known ban on chewing gum) and on how ‘expensive’ the city was compared to its Asian neighbours within the region. 14 While US visitor arrivals to Singapore numbered nearly 650,000 in 2018, tourism receipts hovered around S$550 million (US$403.7 million16), down 5% from 2017. 15 As a comparison, visitor 5 Fredrick Kunkle, “U.S. Citizens among Least Likely to Travel Abroad, British Firm Says” Washington Post, September 29, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/tripping/wp/2017/09/29/u­s­citizens­among­least­likely­to­travel­abroad­british­firm­says/, accessed March 2019. 6 Owen Amos, “Is It True Only 10% of Americans Have Passports?” BBC News, January 9, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world­ us­canada­42586638, accessed March 2019. 7 Ibid. 8 Singapore Tourism Board, “United States of America: STB Market Insights”, February 2016, https://www.stb.gov.sg/content/dam/stb/documents/statistics­marketing­insights/market­insight/stb­market­insights­usa.pdf, accessed March 2019. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 Aradhana Aravindan and John Geddie, “‘Where Is Singapore?’ Trump­Kim Summit a PR Coup for Tiny City­State”, Reuters, June 14, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us­northkorea­usa­singapore­tourism­idUSKBN1JA0PW, accessed March 2019. 13 Singapore Tourism Board, “United States of America: STB Market Insights”, February 2016, https://www.stb.gov.sg/content/dam/stb/documents/statistics­marketing­insights/market­insight/stb­market­insights­usa.pdf, accessed March 2019. 14 Ibid. 15 Singapore Tourism Board, “2018 Year­In­Review”, February 13, 2019, https://www.stb.gov.sg/content/dam/stb/documents/mediareleases/annex­a­yir­presentation­deck­final­003.pdf, accessed March 2019. 2/8 This document is authorized for use only by YU-PING CHEN in 2022.
