Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
20
TOURISM
The S ingapore Tourism Boar d has far-
reaching influence that has helped to turn
Singapore into a v eritable machine for
raising foreign cash. In 2008, 10.1 million
tourists visited Singapore, spending S$14.8
billion (US$9.9 billion/£6.7 billion) dur-
ing their stays.
Not content to rest on its laurels, Singa-
pore has big plans to dramatically increase
these numbers over the next few years with
the building of two casinos built into inte-
grated r esorts, abbr eviated locally as IRs.
The M arina B ay S ands, located in the
heart of S ingapore's do wntown business
district, will include a casino, hotel rooms,
convention facilities, and leisur e facili-
ties—it's slated to open in stages fr om the
end of 2009. O n S entosa I sland, to the
south of the business district, R esorts
World at Sentosa will include, in addition
to a casino, a U niversal S tudios theme
park plus countless family-oriented attrac-
tions and resort-style accommodations.
A landmar k mo ve b y the S ingapore
government, the establishment of legalized
gambling marks the end of a conser vative
era in the histor y of this notoriously
squeaky-clean city-state.
2
LOOKING BACK AT SINGAPORE
A SLEEPY BACKWATER
At the time of its “ discovery,” S ingapore
was occupied b y about 1,000 people,
mainly M alay r esidents,
orang laut
(sea
nomads), a handful of Chinese farmers,
plus assorted pirates in hiding. The island
had little kno wn historical significance.
An early settlement on the island, called
Temasek, had been visited r egularly b y
Chinese mer chants, and later the settle-
ment came under the r ule of the far-
reaching S rivijaya E mpire (9th-13th c.
a.d.), which was based in P alembang in
Sumatra. It was the S rivijayas who named
the island Singapura, or Lion City, after its
leader claimed to hav e seen a lion on its
shores. However, the Srivijayas were even-
tually overtaken by a neighboring po wer,
the J ava-based M ajapahits. S ometime
around 1390, a y oung P alembang r uler,
Iskander Shah (aka Parameswara), rebelled
against the M ajapahits and fled to S in-
gapura, where he set up independent rule.
The Majapahits were quick to chase him
out, and I skander fled up the M alay pen-
insula to M elaka (M alacca), wher e he
founded what would be one of the most
successful trading por ts in the r egion at
the time.
By the 1800s, E uropean po wers had
already explored much of the world, stak-
ing their authority over major trade routes.
Southeast Asia 's initial attraction was its
position betw een two seasonal mon-
soons—one half of the year saw winds that
carried sailing v
2
essels fr om China to
Southeast Asia, while the other half of the
year favored ships coming fr om India and
Arabia. The E nglish, D utch, Portuguese,
French, and S panish, r ecognizing S outh-
east Asia's advantage, scrambled to set up
trading posts to r eceive v aluable tea,
opium, silk, spices, and other goods fr om
China.
The British East India Company, in its
rivalry with the D utch East I ndies Com-
pany, sought to contr ol the S traits of
Malacca, the narr ow passage betw een
Indonesian Sumatra and the Malay penin-
sula. They already had a port at Penang, an
island in the north of the Straits, but it was
proving an economic failur e. The com-
pany charged one of its officers, S ir Stam-
ford Raffles, with the task of locating a
new post. Raffles, who knew the area well,
had his hear t set on a small island at the
tip of the Malay peninsula.
