Interview 20952 – Caption Index: 110
So we had a series of lunches every week with captains of industry and asked them, so if you have 60 hectares of forested land, what would you do?… Read More
So we had a series of lunches every week with captains of industry and asked them, so if you have 60 hectares of forested land, what would you do?… Read More
Was some of your money, though, coming from literally private industry?… Read More
Yes. Companies that we give money to the zoo. Yes, yeah, we would make a few million dollars a year on adoptions and outright capital donations. Singapore is a very affluent country. Well, let’s talk about another area. During this time in 1988, public utility board comes to you, wants… Read More
Can you talk about that process?… Read More
Can you help us to make up the deficit?… Read More
We got quite a lot of development projects that we need to put in. Can you help us?” As a government, they have many ways of transferring money to different government departments. So we latched in on a government department way of getting money. At one stage, we were getting… Read More
So if you insist on subsidizing all the visitors coming to the zoo, then spend it all on operations or else raise your damn prices and make yourself financially viable. And then you could spend all that money on capital development.” And we had always been very socialistic in our… Read More
So it was a dual partnership, public-private?… Read More
Yeah, you could say that. I think the government felt that in the case of the zoo, they were a little less strict than with the other government companies. So Singapore Airlines is a government-owned company. Singapore Airlines normally would never get any handouts from the government, although during COVID,… Read More
Where did the Singapore Zoo sit in the hierarchy of city government?… Read More
Up to the side part of it?… Read More
Yeah, very, very much to the side. We weren’t treated as civil servants, but we were treated as quasi-government. So as a government company, you have certain, I wouldn’t say privileges, but Temasek Holdings, the holding company, invites you to various seminars and things that say private sector wouldn’t be… Read More
What signs told you you were getting successful and was it hard to keep that momentum?… Read More
Well, we started to see the results with the increased tourist attendance. So as I said, when we opened, it was 800,000. We dropped to 500,000. We plateaued at 500,000 a year. Breakfast at the zoo kicks in. And then over the next three to five years, our tourist attendant… Read More
And so that’s what we stuck with until we opened Night Safari. And then Night Safari cannibalized some of the tourists, but at the same time, it wasn’t so dramatic. And so it attracted its own set of tourists. I read about a million visitors a year. Read More
Sometimes they were old exhibits that we totally renovated. But we started off, I think the first exhibit that we started off was Cuban Islands. And then we went on to sea lions and every year something reptile garden. Yeah. Read More
When did you know or when did you start to think that your marketing ideas?… Read More
You started to make people think about Singapore is a world class zoo. Read More
Aside from wanting it to be the tourist attraction, were there other challenges you faced in turning the zoo from a local zoo to his and your idea of a world class suit?… Read More
Absolutely. Well, I think we didn’t particularly plan it to be a world class suit. I think we’re always pushed on the fact that it should be a local attraction. And so one of his great philosophies was that we must have a new attraction open on an annual basis. Read More