FROM PULAU BLAKANG MATI TO SENTOSA : THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LEISURE ATTRACTION

Abstract

Sentosa is a holiday resort island lying half a kilometre south of mainland Singapore. Prior its development, Sentosa was known as Pulau Blakang Mati. The island then was a military area and was home to a small population of villagers. Today, the resort island is one of Singapore's top tourist attraction and a popular recreation spot for the local population. The purpose of this study is to examine the processes of leisure, recreation and tourism (LRT) integration on the island. It also seeks to evaluate whether the integration is successful based on local residents' evaluation and perception of Sentosa. Another objective is to discover the reasons behind the declining proportion of locals visiting Sentosa as compared to the tourists. The conceptual framework employed was developed by Buay (1989/90) for analysing the forces in integrating LRT. To facilitate the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with high-level officials from Sentosa Development corporation (SDC). A questionnaire survey was also conducted amongst local visitors. It was found that the state is the most powerful force behind the integration of LRT on Sentosa. This is reflected in the Master Plan where Sentosa is designated to be a recreation playground for Singaporeans. Simultaneously, Sentosa's development is also incorporated into the tourism development plans on Singapore. Recreation and tourism integration on the resort island has also taken off spontaneously in the beginning when the island was first designated to be a tourist resort. This is reflected in the far greater number of Singaporeans visiting Sentosa in its early days of development. Another spontaneous force identified are the private developers of attractions. The forces identified do not operate individually. Through the interplay of the forces, integration of LRT on Sentosa takes place at three levels: (i) organisational integration, (ii) spatial integration and (iii) functional integration. The result of the survey revealed that the local visitors do see Sentosa as both a tourist attraction as well as an appealing recreation spot for them. It can be concluded that both tourists and local visitors utilise the same recreation space as well as participating in the same recreation activities. Thus Sentosa is not perceived to be just a tourist attraction by the local residents and that recreation and tourism has been successfully integrated on the island. Therefore Sentosa is a tourist cum local recreation resource. The main reason as to why the local population do not visit Sentosa is not because they saw Sentosa as a place for tourists only but because it is expensive to visit and recreate there.