MEDIUM TERM RECREATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The demand for recreation is very great today, as is obvious to anyone even modestly familiar with the situation. Over the years, this has led to the increasing provisions of various recreational facilities such as parks and open spaces, cinemas and sports faci1ities . *P.C. Chua's writing on recreation in Singapore in 1973 foresaw the explosion of interest in erection of many excellent sporting pursuits which has resulted in the erection of many excellent sporting facilities. Now I believed an addition trend is that, increasing people will seek recreational pursuits in the medium term, especially if more and more workers have two days free each week.' -- Russell A Smith, Senior Lecturer of School of Architecture, National University of Singapore. In fact, the increasing demand for Medium Term recreation has led to the increasing provision of these faci1ities. In Singapore, publicly accessible MT recreation facilities have been provided solely by the public sector. The lack of private sector participation is due to the high cost of provision and the risk of seasonal demand associated with their provision. In short, the factors influencing demand are income, availability of leisure time and psychological elements. Land for recreational purpose is often out-bidded by competing residential and commercial uses. An understanding of these factors helps to give a perspective to the positive trend in MT recreational developments. The economic justification for building a new MT recreational development to meet this trend depends on factors such as the degree of increasing demand and its construction and operating costs. The success of an alternative way of undertaking an MT recreational deve1opement, ie. resort timesharing, depends greatly on the level of consumer demand, marketing cost and construction cost.