RESTAURANT INDUSTRY IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The growing affluence of Singaporeans, the trend towards eating out, the higher participation of women in the labour force and the increasing number of tourists lead to a greater demand for restaurants. Restaurants are everywhere, advertisements appear in the newspapers everyday and people spend large amount of money going to food festivals in Hong Kong. Restaurants are playing an increasing role in Singapore, yet not much have been studied about it. The purpose of the study is to look at the contribution of the restaurant industry to the economy, its characteristics, its impact on tourism and some of the problems it faces. Restaurants are found to be characterised by low wages, low productivity and high labour intensity. The restaurant industry is said to be monopolistic competitive, using price and non-price strategies and innovative tactics to compete with each other. There is excess capacity in the monopolistic competitive industry. However, excess capacity is advantageous to the customers as waiting time is shorter and service is more efficient. A sample survey shows that the tourists were pleased with the performance of the restaurants in Singapore. They claimed that food is not an important factor that attract them to Singapore but it will affect their return if the performance of restaurants is not up to standard. The restaurant industry is hit by labour shortage. Many restauranteurs have difficulty in looking for waiters, waitresses and kithchen-helpers due to low in wages, low status, irregular hours and poor job prospects. Some viable solutions to the labour shortage problem are examined. Fortunately, the industrial climate of Singapore has been peaceful with good labour management relation. All restauranteurs interviewed were optimistic of the prospect of the industry.