Gardens by the Bay opens to the public on 29 June 2012

Cooled conservatories highlights of phase one

By Jessica Lim, The Straits Times, 4 Apr 2012

CURTAINS go up on the first phase of Gardens by the Bay, Singapore's complex of three waterfront gardens, on June 29.

Under this phase, the 54ha Bay South Garden - expected to pull in five million visitors a year - will debut, with two cooled conservatories among its highlights.

When the entire Gardens complex, including Bay East and Bay Central gardens, is ready by 2015, it will sit on 101ha of reclaimed land, the space of 177 football fields - far larger than the 63ha Botanic Gardens.

The Bay South Garden's 2ha outdoor event area alone, the largest here, will be able to host events for 30,000 people.

The project is the most costly Government-funded attraction in at least a decade, with Bay South Garden alone costing $1 billion, said the Gardens' assistant director of business Darren Oh.

The 40ha Night Safari, which opened in 1994, probably counts as one of the most recent publicly-funded major recreational spaces; River Safari opens only later this year.

Developed with education, recreation and conservation in mind, the Gardens complex will add lustre to the menu of attractions in Marina Bay.

Besides its conservatories and 18 'Supertrees', concrete-and-metal structures resembling trees, Bay South's other attractions are the Heritage Gardens and the Dragonfly Lake and Kingfisher Lake.

Visitors looking for a meal and refreshments in late June will find six of the 13 Bay South eating places open, including a food hall operated by the Select Group and Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton's Pollen restaurant.

Entry will be free, but admission fees will apply at the conservatories, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest, and at the 128m aerial walkway that wends through the Supertree Grove.

Singaporeans and resident adults can buy a day pass to one conservatory for $12, and two for $20. The walkway costs $5 per adult.

Already, tour agencies say they are marketing the Gardens to potential visitors and are in talks with the Gardens to iron out configurations for tour packages and the logistics.

The group vice-president of sales and marketing for Tour East, Ms Judy Lam, said the restaurant atop the 50m tall Supertree and the conservatories would offer visitors 'something different'. Likening the Gardens to New York's Central Park, she added: 'A garden in a city - it's going to come up well.'

National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (Natas) chief Robert Khoo said enquiries have been received from 30 of the 400 Natas members about putting the Gardens on their tour itineraries.

Announcing the opening date yesterday, Gardens by the Bay chief executive Tan Wee Kiat said his hope is for the Gardens to capture the 'imagination and excitement' of the natural world. He also hoped it would lure young people away from their digital pastimes to appreciate the wonders of the natural world.

Of the cooled conservatories, he said: 'Here on the equator... we're in a garden that is perpetual summer. Into this garden, we've brought two glass houses that give you a touch of perpetual spring.'

The Flower Dome will replicate the cool, dry climate of the Mediterranean and semi-arid sub-tropical regions such as South Africa; the Cloud Forest will house 130,000 plants found between 1,000m and 3,500m above sea level.

The Bay South Garden will be open from 5am to 2am daily; its conservatories and aerial walkway will be open from 9am to 9pm daily.

Gardens' entry fees lower for residents
Gardens by the Bay wants visitors to make repeat visits
By Jessica Lim & Ng Kai Ling, The Straits Times, 6 Apr 2012

THE soon-to-be-opened Gardens by the Bay is the first major publicly funded attraction to levy differing entry fees on local residents and foreigners.

The reason for doing this, said Gardens by the Bay chief executive Tan Wee Kiat, is to encourage people who live here to make return visits.

'Gardens by the Bay is a national garden for local residents to enjoy in the heart of Singapore's downtown,' he said.

'In designing the Gardens, we have taken on board public feedback on what they wanted in a national garden, and worked hard to make it accessible to all. This is the reason for offering a lower admission rate, discounts and concessions, and annual passes for local residents.'

The Gardens' first phase, the 54ha Bay South Garden, opens on June 29. Entry is free, but the admission charges Dr Tan referred to apply to the two cooled conservatories and the 128m-long aerial walkway.

Those who live here - citizens, permanent residents (PRs) and employment pass holders - pay $20 per adult for entry to both conservatories; those aged 60 and up pay $15, and children aged three to 12, $12. Foreigners pay $28 for the two conservatories.

Entry to the walkway is $5 per adult, regardless of nationality.

There is an annual pass, which gives unlimited admission to the two conservatories and aerial walkway. It costs $68 per adult and $180 for a family of two adults and three children. Senior citizen annual passes cost $60.

The only other major attraction here with a daily differential pricing for local residents and foreigners is the ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) integrated resort.

An MBS spokesman said tickets to the museum cost $1 to $4 less for residents for the same reason - to make it more accessible to them and to spur return visits.

A check with 15 other attractions, including the Night Safari, Singapore Science Centre and Singapore Flyer, shows that they do not have across-the-board rates that distinguish locals from foreigners. Instead, they give concessions to specific groups of locals, such as the elderly and students.

For instance, the seven museums under the National Heritage Board (NHB) give free entry to citizens and PRs who are students, teachers, seniors and full-time national servicemen.

Attractions also roll out promotions. For instance, the Singapore Flyer has packages for Singaporeans during the June school holidays; Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which runs the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park, has annual passes for residents.

Retail specialists said this kind of differential pricing for locals and foreigners is not unheard of.

Senior retail lecturer Sarah Lim from Singapore Polytechnic said it makes sense to have affordable prices for residents, or they may not return.

'Many tourists won't feel the higher price because the tickets are included in the cost of the tour. The demand curve is different for different markets. Tourists are less sensitive to higher prices and are unlikely to return for repeat visits,' she said.

The Singapore Science Centre and the ticketed attractions in Sentosa run by the Sentosa Development Corp, such as the Merlion Tower, Fort Siloso and Songs of the Sea, do not have two-tier ticket prices. For the Science Centre, for example, it is because it believes everyone, local or otherwise, should have the same access to knowledge about science.

In the meantime, travel agents said they have been invited to a preview of the Gardens next month, and talks on contract rates for tickets are on-going.

A Gardens spokesman said the contract rates which travel agencies will get will vary with the number of tickets they buy.

Madam Jaclyn Yeoh, managing director of Siam Express, thinks the entry fee to the priced attractions at the Gardens is a little stiff for tourists.

She said: 'We'll take tourists to the Gardens, and if they want to enter the conservatories, they can buy their own tickets. If the conservatories are popular, we'll include them in our tours.'

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