Monday, June 28, 2010

Soft infrastructure

Dubai leads the way.

My observation.
When I visit Dubai, I do not have to fill in any immigration or customs form. They checked my passport and let me through. Dubai is the only country that have done away with the unnecessary forms asking for information (for tourist statistics and other reasons) that they do not really need. In many countries, they make you fill up a few detailed forms, but nobody bother to pay any attention.

Even Singapore require tourist to complete a form to keep statistics that are not really necessary.
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes, immigration forms are an outdated data collection process.

Work is created for no specific reasons.. but yet it is far better than creating more toxic waste.

Some people are employed just to punch in the data.

June 28, 2010 8:01 PM
Anonymous said...

hello, actually i wouldn't really say it's redundant because singapore's tourism sector is quite huge. By enabling the relevant agencies to identify the visitors' nationalities, they are better able to plan to attract an even greater number of visitors.

i think an important measure would be the tourists spending

June 28, 2010 8:29 PM
Anonymous said...

Tourism wqas never a 'big' thing in Singapore.. it was always manufacturing, manufacturing, manufacturing.

I recall wanting to be a tour guide in my youth, but there were no courses available and you had to 'know' somebody in the STPB to get a license.

Data on nationalities and length of stays can be captured by ICA when stamping the passports.
Anyway, the largest group that come here are the Indonesians.. and I am critical about the numbers, since many of them enter and exit on their passports but are actually residents here.

June 28, 2010 9:53 PM
Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to know what proportion of those entering Singapore are real tourists. That is, they tour, enjoy the sights, do some shopping and then go back after that with no other business or agenda.

Maybe the forms can capture this info based on nationality, age, gender, purpose of visit etc. Or can they bluff on the form info that is not in the passport,eg where they stay, came alone, purpose, etc? Do ICA verify?

For instance many young women from a certain country came here under student visa to study. Remember Singapore is an "education hub". God knows if they really study.

June 28, 2010 10:15 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...

There is no need to do a 100% survey of all visitors every day.

You only need to do 100% survey of visitors 1 day in a month.

Less survey means less hassle for tourists. They have to take care of secruity and many other things.

June 29, 2010 5:08 AM

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