Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Unlike tourists' views about the unmaking of place, Singaporean residents have divided
sentiments. While younger generations with no previous links to the waterfront express
delight over the creation of new entertainment spaces, older Singaporeans regret the loss of
familiar place elements. One younger Singaporean (less than 25 years old) spoke of the new
Clarke Quay in the following way: 'The reason why I like the Cannery is because all
Singaporeans dream of air-conditioned streets and that's the closest thing we can get. You can
even smoke in there! Personally I think it is a turn for the better. Like I said I've never come
here before because I suspect there was nothing to do here before.' Having never been to
Clarke Quay (a former warehouse zone and low-cost housing neighbourhood), to this person
the revamped landscape represents a 'making' of place that delights and entrances.
For those with long-standing ties to the river, its redevelopment represents a painful
severing of cherished place bonds. The removal of government-subsidised residences (built in
1974) and shophouses at Ellenborough (right across from Clarke Quay), for example, caused
much heartache for residents who used to live there (see Wilson and Tallon,
Chapter 13
of
this volume, for more on gentrifi cation effects and tourism). When I spoke with these resi-
dents at the time they were preparing to leave their homes for the last time, many were clearly
upset about the 'unmaking' of their home. One ex-resident had this to say: '[My home] was
a three-storey shophouse, then it was pulled down. The old people who used to live here have
no place to go to any more. When we moved to our new house, we had no friends any more.
It is better if we come back here. We miss our old home, we were born here.' Another had
pleaded with government planners to spare the site, but to no avail. The sense of unease and
their powerlessness against the forces of change underscores the harsh and painful realities of
the unmaking of place.
Power, place and perspective in tourism
The making and unmaking of place represent two sides of the spatial transformation coin.
Tourism is instrumental in this dual process because of its potential to create landscapes for
economic development and cultural interest, as well as its ability to commercialise and
destroy. As the case of the Singapore River reveals, 'tourism making places' and 'tourism
unmaking spaces' are not necessarily contradictory processes but can and do co-exist in the
same time-space context. Depending on one's perspectives and degree of place attachment,
the effects of tourism will be perceived differently by different people in different circum-
stances. While planners and business operators regard landscape transformation as a way to
infuse new life into defunct spaces, tourists and local residents may have different opinions
about the benefi ts and problems of these spatial outcomes. We should also not, however, over-
romanticise the power of tourism in any form of spatial transformation. In multi-use land-
scapes such as the urban waterfront, change may be effected by multiple agencies for a variety
of reasons, of which tourism is but one. Societal changes, demands for better housing,
evolving lifestyle aspirations and technological improvements all play a role in the making as
well as the unmaking of places. By casting tourism in its rightful role in the cultural economy
of space, we can appreciate the power of place in tourism discourses, as much as we can
glimpse the power of tourism in place making.
