A collage of pictures taken

 Hard at work

Friendly "staff" !

Walking on "waters", Unique Glass flooring

Focus Lens

Dolphins!

Unique crawl through for a surreal experience

Lastly, my take home souvenir.

Signing off, X

Final entry: How the attraction impacts sunny Singapore

Every attraction will cause impacts to it's host country, and S.E.A Aquarium has impacted the destination both positively and negatively. 

I have identified that this attraction mainly impacts on aspects of economic, environmental and socio-cultural. 

Economic

Firstly, the development of this large scale attraction will require supply to match it's high demands. Hence vast amounts of job opportunities are created for the locals. With increased working individuals, the general income of Singaporeans increase and hence rises and contributes to the overall revenue of the country. 

Also an attraction that draws high numbers of tourists, increases the overall spending during their stay and visit, and generates tourism receipts.

Moreover, with such attractive attractions developed, investors are more inclined to invest in Singapore. The attraction hence indirectly plays a role in enticing potential investors that draws significant foreign currencies into Singapore. 

Hence the attraction will directly and indirectly create a money multiplier and chain effect among Singapore. This boosts the local economy as money is created, earned and constantly pumped in.

However, the money pumped into developing the attraction could have forgone other possible developments. 

Environmental
Due to the marine life nature of the aquarium, environmental is definitely impacted. S.E.A Aquarium puts in its efforts to be environmentally friendly. It actually has a conservation sector in the attraction itself.

This indirectly and positively impacts the environmental health of Singapore. Where visitors will learn about the nasty impacts of fishing, shark fins and such. 

Therefore, the education encourages Singaporeans to be environmentally friendly and responsible. 

This created awareness could help alleviate possible future aqautic/sea life issues in Singapore. Also increases public responsibility, and promoting conservation of marine life/ sustainable fishing. 

Socio-Cultural
Continuing from the above impact, the educational element provided by the attraction will in turn educate the younger generation of Singapore.

Singapore could possibly be free from irresponsible sea and aquatic life issues caused by citizens. It promotes a general positive awareness amongst Singaporeans, to cultivate good social habits, example, not eating shark fins or practising sustainable fishing.

The inclusive attraction also promotes a generally healthy way of including everyone in the society. Local visitors might be reminded of the less noticeable people in society. Hence increasing the social cohesiveness of Singapore.

Also, as the attraction attracts tourists, locals get to meet and mingle with people of different cultures. This improves Singapore's cultural realm where people are exposed to other cultures, lifestyles and behaviours. 

Locals could possibly pick up good cultural habits or lifestyles from the exposure to the tourists.

However given the exposure, Singaporeans might also pick up bad social habits from the different cultures. Or possibly morphing into a pseudo culture to suit to the tourists needs. 

The conducive environment also allows locals to have a place of retreat, to bond, interact and have fun at. This can improve the social aspects of Singaporeans where most are too busy or distracted by work/school/family. 


I have also identified another impact, namely political.

Political
The development of a very well received and equipped attraction can be a stepping stone to Singapore's marine life scene.

The appealing attraction can increase Singapore's beauty and attractiveness globally. This build's Singapore's reputation/image on an international scale and cause people to be more inclined to visit and invest. 

To sum it all up, this attraction can bring both positive and negative impacts to Singapore. Not all attractions can survive with negative impacts. However, more beneficial impacts are generated, which makes the S.E.A Aquarium sustainable in my opinion. 

This comes to my final closure on this attraction, the S.E.A Aquarium. I hope my in depth analysis, observations and information has made it easy for you to understand this attraction better. Leaving you excited and convinced to visit this worthy Aquarium soon. I look forward to hearing from you of your experience and views of the attraction, whether you are agreeable with me.

Signing off, X
Sources: seekingalpha.com

Post visit entry 4: Why S.E.A Aquarium is highly raved, ranked and how?

Now that you have read a whole load of information, analysis and observations, I shall now elaborate on S.E.A Aquarium's success. How and why.
I think you should have probably figured why so by now from the detailed entries from earlier on. 

Firstly, this attraction is priced at a very reasonable price of only $29(normal), $20(senior,child & student). Making it affordable to majority income groups. 

With one ticket, it provides visitors an experience packed with benefits and activities at the aquarium and bonus maritime experiential museum. 

Activities and facilities available like the clay-making station, touch screen panels, games, videos, Touch pool and Typhoon Theatre(Available for $10) provides a very interactive and engaging experience for the visitors. 

This meet the needs of all ages as it appeals to both young and old. Be it the need for visually stimulating information or hands on engagement. The fun and games are also educative as it teaches audience on the marine life or maritime history.

Secondly, due to its user friendly environment, it appeals to anyone and everyone of demographic profile. Be it the physically impaired, busy working professional, families, elderly, students or couples. 

Hence this attraction provides a solace/escape for all visitors, where both the locals and tourists can take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city. It is also an easy place for a bonding session between families, a romantic retreat and conducive environment for students. 

As seen, families of young to old lazed around in front of 
viewing galleries. While couples strolled down the dim lit and relaxing environment. Students participially read the informative panels and made their observations like myself.

Therefore, the attraction that draws this mix market has managed to cater to the needs of market. Giving visitors a satisfying experience. 

This probably explains the many positive reviews from tripadvisor.com , as seen in the pre-visit/research entry.

The attraction not only meet the wants of the visitors, it taps on all aspects of needs. Gauging from the Maslow Hierarchy of needs, the attraction has manage to deliver all levels. 

Namely, physiological, safety & needs, social needs, esteem and self actualization. 

Where this attraction has tapped on all aspects of the Maslow hierarchy of needs. From its physiological level, safety & needs, social needs, esteem to self actualization.

Quoting from the examples of tangible and intangibles products of the attraction from previous posts of how the attraction meets all levels of needs:

Physiological: Basic facilities provided like, toilets, Food & Beverage, indoor based aquarium that can operate be it rain or shine.

Safety & security: The well planned layout of the attraction, noticeable and adequately placed safety directions and signage, alert and readily available staffs on patrol.

Social needs: The wide range of activities available for bonding,interaction and engaging with your accompanied friends,families and friendly staffs. As seen, families had mini gatherings where they sat in front of the open ocean gallery. While teenagers excitedly took pictures of one another.

Esteem: Encouraging staffs that boost esteems of less confident ones like the children, example, at the “touch pool”.

Self actualization: The interactive games available to stimulate creativity and logic thinking, "Touch pool" to push people out of their comfort zones to touch the unknown marine animals.

Thirdly, the attraction offers a very uniquely surreal experience for visitors. To me, it was a lifetime experience. To be simply in front of the spectacular marine animals, so close it almost seemed as though I was in the deep oceans. 

This is particularly unique as you cannot experience or see such marine animals of the deep oceans on a day to day basis. Not everyone has the abilities to Scuba dive and see such amazing views. S.E.A Aquarium brings the marine life so close to you. What more, to view it through the world's largest viewing window. 

This attraction also offers an all rounded attraction product as mentioned before. Not all attractions necessarily include many or any augmented product. Whereas, this aquarium has been designed to welcome everyone. Making it a very inclusive attraction that does not leave out the less noticed people of society like the elderly or physically impaired. I personally feel they have created a socially responsible impression to visitors like myself. 

As seen in this review, the reviewer pretty much sums up what I'm saying. 

Now ahead to competitors, you must be wondering how does S.E.A Aquarium stand out from prominent and longer existing competitors like the Under Water World. 

In my opinion, this attraction simply offers more in a sense of being all rounded as a service product. It also have better facilities, viewing pleasure, interactive activities as compared to it's competitors like the reviewer  mentioned.

The people of modern society are highly demanding and are constantly changing. Hence, S.E.A Aquarium is up to date in providing for this current market which differentiates it from existing aquariums in Singapore or globally. While competitors have probably yet to catch up with trends like technology. 

Finally, I feel that this attraction has so far been successful in promoting itself. The attraction itself is spread all over social media platforms and print media. Also being a fairly new attraction, it has quickly risen to its current rank of " #40 of 279" according to tripadvisor.com Very well done in establishing it's reputation.

In conclusion, S.E.A Aquarium is successful in many aspects, be it it's facilities provided, to simple handouts that comes in multi languages. 

This is probably why it is so well received and reviewed as it generally holds a good reputation and image branding. As promoted "Where learning meets fun", most people looking for something less high in requirements would be enticed to this attraction. It is a free and easy leisure recreational place of interest suitable for all. Plus it's affordable tickets and bonus museum, it is pretty much a"why not" place to visit. 

However given it's successful and positive attributes, there is still bound to be negative factors that needs to be improved or worked on. As much as it has a reputable appeal, the previous cases where a few dolphins died whilst transportation from Philippines to the aquarium has caused a stir and controversy. Hence, it is crucial for S.E.A Aquarium to address such issues carefully to build the trust and impression of the public, where potential visitors could be deterred from such issues. 

Signing off, X

Sources: www.tripadvisor.com , www.flickr.com , changingminds.org , www.kidsparenting.com

Post visit entry 3: The unique nature & analysis of the attraction's challenges

As you know, my chosen attraction is an aquarium. Due to this unique nature of holding over 800 live species of marine animals, dolphins and over 200 sharks, it can face challenges and difficulties in countering service tangibles. In this entry, I will hence analyse some of my observations in context of a service product.

Firstly, the aquarium can only deliver the marine life to visitors to a certain extent as these are animals and not tangible products like rides in a theme park.

Hence, visitors might not feel entirely satisfied or might feel disappointed by their expectations. 

Example, some might expect open aquariums or an available diving experience but the lack of these elements might let them feel unsatisfied afters. 

However, the attraction has combined both tangibles and intangibles to counter the possible challenges of being an aquarium. 

As mentioned from entry 2, staffs are readily involved in providing and delivering to the customer's experience. Although the staff are unable to bring majority of the marine animals to you physically, they educate you. This way, you can relate and learn by observing the nature of these animals as they educate. 

Though majority marine animals cannot be brought to us physically, the "Touch pool" feature present is a good example of how S.E.A Aquarium counter such service issues. 

As seen before in entry 2, the staffs are bringing boring "textbooks/knowledge" to life. Like the malay staff holding the picture, visitors especially children can easily understand his explanations of the starfish. Visitors are encouraged by the friendly staffs to engage in a hands on experience to feel "closer" to these marine animals. 

What more, their positive and helpful service nature add on to the pleasing environment and service experience of the attraction as a whole. Customers like myself enjoy and feel more pleased to be surrounded by friendly and approachable staffs. 

Secondly, like every customer, we all have demands of needs and wants. Each customer has a different perspective, expectation, and experience. 

Like myself that did pre-visit research, I gain many first hand knowledge of the attraction before visiting. This gives me an idea of what to expect and perhaps expectations of what others raved about. The reviewed open ocean gallery raved as the world's largest did not disappoint me as it was indeed humongous when I visited. 

However, some customers that could have past experiences from other aquariums could expect more. Like in some reviews I had read, some were disappointed as they compared it with previous larger scale aquariums they have visited.

Therefore, S.E.A Aquarium has to face the difficulty of keeping up with being consistent. In terms of providing the all rounded aspects ranging from services, variety of marine life, facilities to other products like souvenirs made available. 

Example, what they brand, promote and advertise on their official website, and host websites should be what they can deliver. The open ocean gallery can be an example to illustrate this as it is highly raved worldwide of how huge the viewing window is. 

Also, vast amounts of people review on this attraction, hence they have to live up to their reputation and expectations created by past visitors. 

Example, clean aquariums should be maintained to achieve a high standard and keep the fishes healthy. From what I observe, it's been done.

This is one of the many scuba diver that was cleaning and maintaining the aquarium during operating hours. Giving customers the impression that they maintain their aquariums standards.

Nonetheless, I would still say that it is indeed a huge challenge to keep up with customer expectations and demands. Due to the mass market mix and large scale size of many different elements. Not all customers can be pleased and satisfied. 

Thirdly,  the large scale attraction is home to vast amounts of marine life. It is difficult to keep up with its consistency of providing every species to display. 

Some marine animal like the dolphins might not be able to thrive in this man-made habitat. Hence some might fall sick or even die.

The service product of an aquarium is not standardized and changes all the time. 

The good team of staffs could possibly only be temporary where people come and go. Eventually newer staffs might not possess the same disposition and attitude as good as this batch. 

Other visitors at the attraction can also contribute to the atmosphere of the place. On unfortunate days, inconsiderate customers could leave other victimized visitors a bad impression of the place. 

Therefore uncontrollable factors like the lives of the marine animals or visitor crowds could post a challenge to the attraction in trying to standardize itself.

Fourthly, since an attraction runs on ticket sales and normally operates daily , lost sales or unsold tickets are unavoidable. On non-peak periods, the Aquarium could receive lousy sales but still needs to operate the entire attraction. 

This can be profit losing since this large scale place requires expensive, specific and controlled habitats for the marine life. Lost sales in a day cannot be retrieved back, hence making it a perishable product.

Supply and demand is difficult to balance as demand is seasonal and unpredictable.

Fifthly, the live marine animals cannot be brought home as souvenirs or pets. Customers especially children might demand animals to be sold to them and this can affect the overall mood of the visiting family. 

However, the attraction managed to counter this by providing ample amounts of souvenirs sold. Example, Shark soft toys as such.

Also, the aquarium face the difficulty of promoting to potential customers. 

Example, It can be challenging to convince experienced aquarium visitors to visit as you cannot experience the product without visiting itself. This fact might deter potentials as they might fear that it will disappoint them.

Also, buying the ticket is buying an overall experience minus the available souvenirs. Unsatisfied visitors cannot get a refund/exchange of their "experience" for a new product. 

Hence S.E.A Aquarium has to make sure the overall experience delivered to customers are up to expectations and satisfaction each time it operates.

Lastly, the surroundings of the aquarium plays a part in adding to the visitor's experience. 

 Not everything appeals to everyone, hence the design and layout of the attraction must be carefully thought out to be functional yet appealing.

Especially an enclosed attraction that attracts large numbers of visitors, human traffic could be a serious problem.

Like from my experience, the attraction has designed a roundabout type of layout. Although aesthetically appealing and easy for users to reach each destination. 

It however slows down traffic flow as people do not have alternative routes. Everyone has to go with the flow to reach the next section. Therefore this poses a challenge of managing human traffic flow to S.E.A Aquarium. 

Also, due to the factors of different controlled habitats needed for the animals, design can be difficult to appeal both visitor and animals.

 Example, for safety reasons, viewing panels must be thick enough to hold the water enclosure, yet be clear enough for visitors. Hence this must be countered as well. 

In conclusion, every attraction face several challenges as a service product. Like the S.E.A aquarium, many difficulties must be countered. However, some can be overcome with advanced planning. Overall, I feel that this attraction has managed to counter issues as mentioned, but there are always improvements to be made. 

Post visit entry 2: Motivating factors & going in-depth

Here goes, an in depth post about the bonus museum and aquarium, I’m sure it’s going to leave you (Carrie) psyched to visit soon!

Carrying on from entry 1,

The bonus maritime experiential museum has a wide array of artifacts which is almost surreal as seen in the picture below.

As to what I witnessed, both the young & old were easily amused at the realistic figures and artifacts.

Interactive and informative panels were strategically placed at almost every section making it accessible and noticeable. Allowing visitors especially children to engage in an educative and engaging lesson, varying from videos, games or simply information made stimulating. Older folks were also seen excitedly engaged in the touch screen panels that made it much less daunting to their less proficient eyesight.

What I found interesting and appealing was the presence of several tangible elements. A clay making station was open for children to have hands on experience on relating to the particular country’s history. This was especially popular to families as parents enjoyably stood by their child. Also, a reasonably priced photo-taking “pirate bay” station that was more popular to the tourists.

Just the bonus museum was quite a bit isn't it? The ticket price of only $20(Children,Senior,Student) and $29(Normal) is valuable as it packs so much educational, fun and interactive learning in even before entering the aquarium. This makes the attraction worth its price.

Next, stepping foot into the aquarium is eye opening, as you enter the tunnel surrounding you with marine life.

Firstly,

The wide variety of marine life will draw you into the never ending sea of fishes. As mentioned this attractions holds more than 800 species of marine animals of manta rays, gentle giants, fishes, over 200 sharks and even dolphins! 

This is very rewarding in all aspects, as it relaxes, educates and gives you an overall enjoyable time. Each viewing panel are readily equipped with informative panels for customer to learn about the different fishes or any interesting facts. While being amongst all the fishes swimming gracefully above or beside you just relaxes one (especially students like us) as it is visually stimulating yet relaxing.  

What more, S.E.A Aquarium has the world’s largest viewing open gallery of 36-metre (118 ft) wide and 8.3-metre (27 ft) tall which opens up to huge manta rays, sharks and schools of fishes.

The view is so spectacular and overwhelming it is almost surreal, giving the experience of a lifetime. The marine habitat and life is so close it almost feels like you are deep on the floor of the oceanic blue. You get to witness the lives of these marine life as manta rays dance around the large ocean. Schools of fishes sweeping by you and sand sharks lazily thread the waters.

Secondly, this huge attraction that attracts a vast mix visitor market is great for observations. Especially for a tourism student like you & I, you get to observe the varied tourists and visitors. How the attraction has particularly done well in catering to the needs and wants of the consumers that will be further talked about below.

Thirdly, the attraction had provided all aspects of the 3 levels in an attraction product.

In terms of the the 3 levels,
*Font below is uneven due to blogger, cannot be resolved*

Core: Their core is delivering a fun and educative experience in a marine life context. Like what they have branded themselves as “Where learning meets fun”. The interactive and adequately prepared tangibles satisfy the needs and wants of the customers.

Hence, I believe they have managed to grasp this idea well and deliver it to customers. To me, it was indeed fun and enriching. I learnt many fun facts about marine life and had satisfied my want of exploring the “deep oceans” safely. Hence you will be in for an enriching yet fun time here at the aquarium.

Tangible product: In terms of this level, the aquarium has been designed in a progressive layout for customers, where each different area holds different displays of marine life from the featured sea. It would be like a journey throughout the different seas of Asia and habitats of marine animals. Moreover, photography is allowed, hence visitors are able to take away their experience in photographic memories. 

Every area provides adequate and satisfying variety of marine life ranging from sea, salt and fresh water aquatic animals. Viewing panels are large enough to provide a clear view of the marine life to customers.

However to avoid disappointment, I suggest visiting during off peak periods so as to obtain the optimal view!

Moreover informative panels or information in several languages are strategically located like the ones at the museum, where it is easily noticeable and readable. Whether it came in handouts, visual or touch screen interactive manner, all provided sufficient information.

Above all the more obvious tangibles of well equipped viewing galleries, informative and interactive panels, the less noticeable tangibles like the service staff of the attraction tops it all. 

An interactive and experiential “touch pool” is present for customers to engage in a “touching” of starfishes and cucumbers session. Where staff educates on the marine life and greatly encourages users especially children to give the animals a touch.

  

Service staffs were consistently seen patrolling around or situated at several locations to provide assistance or guidance to customers. They possessed a positive attitude and a readily available disposition as I saw a particular staff assisting a wheelchair bound user to manoeuvre out of the crowd.

Many of them were approachable and more than willing to share their marine life/attraction knowledge to curious visitors. Hence you would feel comfortable to approach them for questions or anything.

Like myself, I dropped my dollar note and the staffs were very helpful in assisting me with the lost note. They searched the floors with me and eventually I retrieved the $10 back.

Other than these tangibles, safety and layout of the attraction is very well thought out. As mentioned above, maps are sufficiently provided to ensure a smooth experience without missing out on anything.

 Since aquariums are usually dim lited, I found that the safety, exit signs and directions were still noticeable and clear. This plays an important role as the attraction is an enclosed area, hence you can have no worries on safety or human traffic. Although it gets crowded at certain viewing galleries, the ample space is adequate to have a smooth journey in the aquarium.

Augmented Product: We come to this last level that the aquarium has included in the whole experience too.

I learnt from one of the staffs that tours are made available upon request and booking, be it for corporates, schools or tourists. This information can be also found online on their “visitor info” page on the official S.E.A Aquarium of RWS website.

The common and ample car parks are conveniently located at the basement of RWS, where users can simply park and take the escalators up to this attraction.

Toilets are provided at locatable, acessible and convenient locations throughout the attraction.

Ancillary services are also present, where they have strike a balance of including two contrasting Food & Beverage outlets at the attraction itself. 

One of a casual snack bar and the other, a fine dining Chinese restaurant serving sustainable seafood. If given a chance, you could try the fine dining as it offers an unobstructed view of the open ocean gallery as you dine. That can be one memorable experience that I unfortunately did not try.

At the beginning and end of the attraction, retail products/souvenirs are attractively sold for users looking to bring home a tangible memory. In the aquarium itself, a pressed penny vending-like machine is present for customers. I myself could not resist to get one myself at only $2.

Moreover, the large and satisfying viewing panels are not the only visuals you can experience. An added feature named the "Focus Lens" totally blew my mind. 

As seen from the picture above, this feature actually unravels an interesting fact of this fish species. On closer look, you can see the baby of the pregnant fish move. Hence this unique feature gives us customers a much unexpected experience. Allowing us to learn of such fishes and have a close up view to it.

Other than these, what impressed me and you will observe is the “all-user” friendly interior of the attraction. As mentioned before, the attraction is open to anyone and everyone even the physically impaired. As seen, some elderly and physically impaired citizens from Yuhua were invited. More info can be found on http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/elderly-and-physically-challenged-visit/612148.html#.UZiN6S2JmkQ.email 
Hence, you will find that ramps, railings and lifts are all present. This greatly aids users like the wheel-chair bound, as not all attractions put this into their layout design.

Flooring were non-slip which is very appropriate, given the large number of children running around the aquarium.  At designated areas like the open ocean gallery spreads out to carpeted floors. Great for a relaxing time as most customers were seen resting on the floors.

Finally, the whole atmosphere of the attraction is satisfyingly relaxing as they play sounds or music of the sea to add on to this experiential experience. 

Like at the open ocean gallery where most people sit back to immerse themselve in the spectacular view, soft and relaxing music is played. While at the dolphin habitat, dolphin sounds are played to make the environment even more surreal.

Lastly, in my opinion, the three levels have been well delivered to customers as it satisfies the demand of our wants and needs.Therefore you can look forward to a beneficial experience. 

In conclusion of this entry of motivating factors, tangibles and intangibles, you will definitely be in for an interactive, hands on, educational, observational and relaxing experience. Also, busy individuals like students can finish the attraction in approximately 2 hours, where all aspects can be explored. Unlike some attractions, time constraint might disallow visitors to explore all areas of the place as it is too widespread or difficult to manoeuvre. 

With all the positive attributes and all rounded environment, I’m sure you are even more motivated to visit this attraction now, not forgetting the bonus museum!

Ps: Pardon the lengthy post as I have simply too much to share about this amazing attraction. Also the uneven fonts is due to blogger's technical error that can't seem to be resolved.

Next entry on more analytical topics.

Signing off, X

Credits: www.Agoda.com , sg.lifestyleasia.com ,
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/elderly-and-physically-challenged-visit/612148.html#.UZiN6S2JmkQ.email