Orchard Road Facelift - A Waste or Good Use of Money?

Orchard Road is a major shopping district of Singapore. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it is iconic of Singaporeans' shopaholic nature with malls lining the road on both sides. Every year, many tourists come here to see this place and experience Singapore. Therefore, it is only imperative that the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) would pay special attention to this iconic road. It was probably due to this that there was a massive $40 million facelift for this road, usually abuzz with life. However, after its completion, the question has arisen, "Was the money spent worth it?"

Firstly, we must note that $ 40 million is not a small amount. In numbers, it is $ 40 000 000! That is a whopping sum to spend on anything. So, for this amount of money spent on the facelift, there must have been a significant difference that it makes. However, according to various interviews conducted, many did not notice any significant change. In fact, in a poll by the Sunday Times, the number who fell in this group was 40 out of the 100 polled. Now, if so many people did not notice the change made during the facelift, why spend so much money? Orchard Road before the facelift was still attracting tourists and locals alike. Thus, the facelift was unnecessary. This money could be spent on better things like improving the maintenance and cleanliness levels. Moreover, more elderly-friendly features, like ramps instead of stairs could have been built, which would fall in line with the government's aim of making Singapore a more elderly-friendly place for its rapidly ageing population.

Now, one might say that the facelift did improve the greenery in the area, thus ensuring that Singapore lived up to its billing as "The Garden City". It would attract more people to the area. However, as earlier mentioned, what is the use of this when a significant portion of people did not notice these changes? This finding essentially means that this improvement in greenery would not increase the number of people coming to Orchard Road by much.

Secondly, this facelift also hurt the tourism and sales industry when it was being carried out. Many tourists, who came during the time that the facelift was taking place, said that they were disappointed with what they saw at Orchard Road. Some reasons that they cited for their disappointment was the difficulty in getting around and the lack of crowd. That is not all. Sales also dipped during this period as the works blocked people from coming or seeing vendors or shops. This fact is furher worsened by the fact that the facelift was being done when the world was in economic downturn. In such a climate, it is essential to try to attract tourist since tourism is an essential part of Singapore's economy. However, by conducting the facelift at that time, the STB was essentially worsening sales and driving tourists away . Although the facelift is aimed at increasing sales and toursim in the long term, by reducing the revenue earned during this period of time was an inconsiderate action since people and companies desparartely need money needed money at this time. Such an inconsiderate action by The STB was really a blemish on its work to attract tourists so far and is something that they should have considered. Ordinary people were also inconvenienced during this time due to the poor accessibility of transport, like MRT stations. Mrs Shahana B, an executive who works in the Orchard area described the area as "a work-in-progress". Thus, one can imagine what an impact this facelift would have had on the tourism and sales industries during the time it was being carried out

Lastly, the facelift also seems to have disappointed locals here as well. Some people find that the Orchard area is not clean because a lot of leaves can be seen scattered all over the pavement.Others said that the facelift does not look finished. Locals also find some of the new additions under the facelift annoying or without purpose. For instance, Designer Josephine Jane complained, "The flower totems are annoying because they block your view and we don't really know the purpose of the glass panel." If the facelift does not make an impression with locals, it means that the facelift has not achieved its purpose of beautifying Orchard Road.

Therefore, I feel that Orchard Road facelift was a waste of $40 million, a large sum that could have been put to better use, like by making Orchard Road more elderly-friendly, which is in accordance with the government's plans to make Singapore an elderly-friendly country.