Tourism is a major industry for Singapore that attracts over 16 million visitors annually. English is widely spoken, making the country accessible to tourists. Popular attractions include the Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park, and the tourist island of Sentosa. Integrated resorts like Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa that feature casinos and theme parks are also major draws. Singapore ranks highly in international reports for its business environment, policies supporting tourism, and excellent infrastructure like the MRT system.
2. Tourism in SingaporeTourism in Singapore is a major industry and contributor to the Singaporean economy,
attracting 16.4 million international tourists in 2016, about 3 times of Singapore's total
population. It is also environmentally friendly, and maintains natural and heritage
conservation programs. Along with this, it also has one of the world's lowest crime rates.
As English is the dominant one of its four official languages, it is generally easier for
tourists to understand when speaking to the local population of the country, for example,
when shopping. Transport in Singapore exhaustively covers most, if not all public venues
in Singapore, which increases convenience for tourists. This includes the well-known Mass
Rapid Transit (MRT) system.
The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 ranks Singapore 13th out of 136
countries overall, which was the third best in Asia only behind Japan (ranked 4th) and
Hong Kong (ranked 11th). The report ranks Singapore's business environment,
international openness, also travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions as the best
in the world (ranked 1st). However, the island nation scored rather low in natural and
cultural resources sub-index (ranked 40th).
The Orchard Road district, which is dominated by multi-storey shopping centres and
hotels, can be considered the center of tourism in Singapore. Other popular tourist
attractions include the Singapore Zoo, River Safari and Night Safari, which allows people to
explore Asian, African and American habitats at night without any visible barriers between
guests and the wild animals. The Singapore Zoo has embraced the 'open zoo' concept
whereby animals are kept in enclosures, separated from visitors by hidden dry or wet
moats, instead of caging the animals, while the River Safari, features 10 different
ecosystems around the world, including the River Nile, Yangtze River, Mississippi, Amazon
as well as the Tundra and has 300 species of animals, including numerous endangered
species.
Jurong Bird Park is another zoological garden centred on birds, which is dedicated towards
exposing the public to as much species and varieties of birds from around the world as
possible, including a flock of one thousand flamingos. The tourist island of Sentosa, which
attracts 19 million visitors in 2011, is located in the south of Singapore, consists of about
20–30 landmarks, such as Fort Siloso, which was built as a fortress to defend against the
Japanese during World War II.
Guns from the World War II era can be seen at Fort Siloso, from a mini-sized to a 16 pound
(7 kg) gun. Moreover, the island has built the Tiger Sky Tower, which allows visitors to view
the whole of Sentosa, as well as the Sentosa Luge, a small one- or two-person sled on
which one sleighs supine and feet-first. Steering is done by shifting the weight or pulling
straps attached to the sled's runners. Among the latest tourists attractions built in
Singapore includes the two integrated resorts which houses casinos, namely Marina Bay
Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, a Universal Studios theme park and Gardens by the Bay.
4. Tourism in EgyptMajor tourist destinations include the millennia-old monuments in the Nile Valley.
Principal among them are the Pyramids and Great Sphinx at Giza, the Abu Simbel temples
south of Aswan and the Karnak Temple Complex and Valley of the Kings near Luxor.
Attractions in Cairo include the Cairo Museum and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha.
The coast of the Sinai Peninsula has well-visited seaside resorts, in addition to Hurghada
city on the Red Sea coast and the Famous El Gouna Resort 25 km Hurghada.[19]
Giza Pyramids
Giza, 20 km southwest of Cairo, has several remains from the 26th century BC such as
temples and monuments to pharaohs including the Great Sphinx, and the Great Pyramids
of Giza.
Saqqara, 30 km south of Cairo is a vast, ancient burial ground which served as the
necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. It features numerous pyramids,
including the world's oldest standing step pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas.
Luxor, about 500 km south of Cairo, is the site of the ancient city of Thebes. It includes the
ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor, which stand within the modern city.
On the opposite side of the Nile River lie the monuments, temples and tombs on the West
Bank Necropolis, which include the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.
Abu Simbel Temples
Abu Simbel, about 850 km south of Cairo (near the Sudanese border) is an archaeological
site comprising two massive rock temples originally carved out of a mountainside during
the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II (13th century BC). The complex was relocated in its
entirety in the 1960s to avoid being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser. They
are now situated on an artificial hill made from a domed structure high above the Aswan
High Dam reservoir.
Alexandria is a main summer resort, due to its beaches, ancient history and Museums,
especially the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern project based on reviving the ancient
Library of Alexandria.
Sinai Peninsula- Sinai has the beach resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba
as well as locations mentioned in the Bible such as Mount Sinai ("Jabal Musa"). Saint
Catherine's Monastery may be the oldest working Christian monastery in the world.
Ain Sukhna, about 110 km east of Cairo has a number of beach resorts.
Assiut:in south of Egypt has historic buildings from the time of the pharaohs and ancient
mosques.
Hurghada and El Gouna resort on the Red Sea Coast, 26 km from Hurghada International
Airport, are both famous for their beaches, snorkeling and diving, and El Gouna is famous
for its fabulous nightlife.
6. Tourism in Malaysia
Malaysia is ranked 9th in the world for tourist arrivals. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 ranks Malaysia 25th
out of 141 countries overall, which was the fifth best in Asia. However, most of arrival tourists are Singaporeans who daily cross the
border to Malaysia for work and go back at night time.
In an effort to diversify the economy and make Malaysia's economy less dependent on exports, the government pushed to increase
tourism in Malaysia. As a result, tourism has become Malaysia's third largest source of foreign exchange income, and accounted for
7% of Malaysia's economy as of 2005.
The government agency in charge of promoting tourism in Malaysia is Tourism Malaysia or the Malaysia Tourism Promotion
Board (MTPB). On 20 May 1987, the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism (MOCAT) was established and TDC moved to this
new ministry. TDC existed from 1972 to 1992, when it became the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB), through the
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board Act, 1992.
In 1999, Malaysia launched a worldwide marketing campaign called "Malaysia, Truly Asia" which was largely successful and
brought in over 7.4 million tourists. The extra revenue generated by tourism helped the country's economy during the economic
crisis of 2008.