Singapore is a small country whose land area (about 710 square kilometers) is equal to one third of the area of Tokyo. On the other hand, about 11.6 million tourists visited Singapore during the year of 2010, which was about twice the number of its national population and about twice the number of tourists visiting Tokyo in the same year. Despite its size of the national land, Singapore features a variety of attractions that strongly appeal to visitors from around the world, such as leisure and entertainment facilities that continue to grow, unique food culture that reflects the country's cultural diversity, and its role as the global business center where more international conventions were held than in any other cities in the world (in 2010).
Two officials who participated in the study tour from the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs Tourism Division, are in charge of the TMG's tourism industry promotion measures. With a goal to gain experience that would benefit the government's next plans for bringing more tourists to Tokyo, the two visited tourism-related facilities and learned about how Singapore has been advancing its tourism industry. They also had an opportunity to exchange ideas with local tourist agencies about how Tokyo could bring back overseas tourists which have been decreasing after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011.
Meanwhile, the other two officials from the Bureau of Construction, Park Division are responsible for renewing the metropolitan zoos and aquarium. Partly due to the decline in the national birth rate, the number of visitors to these facilities is also decreasing. To transfer Tokyo's zoos and aquarium into attractive tourist destinations that could bring visitors from around Japan as well as from overseas, the two visited zoos and aquarium in Singapore, most of which have been very popular among overseas tourists.

Katsuta and Soma of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs took tours to Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, both of which are integrated resort complex facilities that include hotels, MICE* facilities, casinos, shopping malls, and more. They also had a meeting with local tourist agencies. What looked most distinguished to the Japanese officials about Singapore tourism was that tourism is not merely considered as a leisure travel but is defined in a broader perspective by closely linking it to other fields such as business, education, and medical care to meet demands of overseas tourists. Such strategies, however, cannot be implemented only by the government but require collaboration between the public and private sectors. Based on the nation's clearly defined strategies, different sections of the country are actively and globally promoting Singapore's tourism, successfully improving the world's recognition of the attractions that are available in Singapore. Both Katsuta and Soma are looking forward to applying their learning in Singapore to promotion measures and overseas promotion activities to revitalize the Tokyo's tourism industry.

Suzuki and Sugino from the Department of Construction visited Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, Underwater World Singapore, and other facilities.
At the zoo and the aquarium in Singapore, various innovative programs are continuously offered to keep attracting visitors. Night Safari, for example, is the world's first program of nighttime operation at a zoo, which takes advantage of the nation's year-round warm tropical weather and vegetation. A new attraction called River Safari is also scheduled to open in 2012. At the aquarium, a popular sleepover program lets visitors spend the night at the facilities while watching nighttime behaviors of aquatic animals.
Since all of the exhibits are birds at Jurong Bird Park, the park administers annual vaccinations to their birds to protect them from contracting bird flu. After a month of the vaccination, the birds are examined by blood tests to make sure they have developed immunity. To further secure the flu control, one or two chickens, which have been grown in axenic conditions, are kept in every display section of the park. Although they are kept in a place so as not to be seen by visitors, the chickens provide samples for monthly blood tests to monitor the display area's environment. In addition to these measures to improve animal management and exhibition, crisis-management measures are also well schemed, such as employees' work shift and countermeasures for possible blackout for the Night Safari program. The Singapore Zoo is also active in global cooperation with other zoos outside the country. The zoo lent tools to catch dangerous animals including alligators and snakes that escaped form a zoo in Bangkok when a recent major flood attacked the city.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced its new "Metropolitan Zoos Master Plan" in 2011, which indicates future goals and possible projects to achieve the goals to rejuvenate the metropolitan zoos and aquarium – Ueno, Tama, and Inokashira Park zoo and Tokyo Sea Life Park. The plan includes an introduction of new exhibitions that emphasize original lifestyles of the wild animals, such as presenting wild animals in a similar environment to that of their original habitat (e.g. savanna), or showing animals in a realistic reproduction of the ocean's ecosystem. A development of various PR strategies will also be discussed and implemented to bring more visitors of different ages and from different countries to contribute to promoting Tokyo's tourism and to the development of local communities.

Although the participants stayed in Singapore only for a few days, what they have directly learned and observed will certainly be reflected to Tokyo's next mid- and long-term movements for building a better tourism industry. Visit Tokyo and witness as it changes into a more exciting tourist city.
*MICE = Meeting, Incentive, Convention, and Exhibition