Introduction

The festival that that I have went is the 26th annual Singapore River Regatta situated at Boat Quay. This event is held over 2 days, from 22 Nov 2008 to 23 Nov 2008. Teams from different schools, community centres, public services sector, companies and oversea clubs in Singapore all come together on that very day to race and compete. The event is split in different category, the ‘Open’ event, which means that all the 5 different sector as mentioned above are eligible to join, followed by the ‘Tertiary’ event, which is only meant for the various Polytechnics and Universities. Next is the ‘Expact’ event, which means that only the oversea clubs in Singapore are eligible to join. This report would give a more detailed understanding about the dragon boat festival and at the same time find out how this festival could benefit Singapore in different ways.
(http://www.sdba.org.sg/

Here is a brief history about dragon boating. Dragon boat racing is originated from China and it is one of the fastest growing water-sport in the world today. Beside that, it has been around for as long as two thousand years. It starts off as a form of ritual celebrated by many Asian culture called ‘Waking the Dragon’. It is usually celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month and the first races are meant to wake the hibernating dragon and please the spirit of the dragons so as to avoid bad luck and also to call for the rain that they needed for a good harvest for the year. Dragon boat races are not meant to be soft and quiet. It is loud, explosive whereby participants are screaming while rowing to motivate their respective teams and the crowds cheer loudly to support their teams. It is a celebration!(http://www.barriedragonboatfestival.ca/about/history/poet.htm)

Singapore only started dragon boat racing in 1978 when Hong Kong invited Singapore to participate in the Hong Kong races. Since then, in the same year Singapore Sports Council organized the first dragon boat competition in Singapore. The races then are only confined to local participants and there are only a total of 25 teams. After that, Singapore Sports Council had continued to organise the races annually with financial support from the Singapore Tourism Board. The sport has grown steadily over the last 20 years and since 1979, it has become an annual international sporting event in the events calendar

Marketing

There are 8 Ps in the marketing events and those 8 elements are Product, Place, Partnerships, Promotion, Packaging, People and Price.

Product

The product could be separated into 3 different sections, the core product, tangible product and augmented product. The core product that this river regatta offers is its competitive experience and the thrilling and exciting feeling when the participants are paddling. Participants from different clubs come to compete with each other for the medal, glory and also satisfaction, being able to clinch the gold medal makes all the hard work for the past few months pay off.

Next, the intangible product that this regatta provides is the ambience. The atmosphere is so much different compared to going to the museum or the library. In that regatta, you will see people screaming, cheering and shouting to support their teams, paddlers shouting, motivating their team mates to row the last few meters. The place is very lively and loud.

Next, it is the augmented product. There are car parks provided for those who drove to Boat Quay. And also stairs that acts like seats for people to get a better view of the race. Lastly, there is a couple of fast food restaurant, MacDonald and Burger King. If the participants are hungry to what not, they could just walk over to any of the fast food restaurant and grab a quick bite.


Place (Diagram Above)

Next, there are many tents pitched up for the different teams to keep their belongings and also to set up their sponsor logos, cooler box for the drinks, food for lunch and a place to rest if their respective event has not been called yet. There are vendors situated around the area who sell dragon boat products such as key chains, T-shirts, caps and different merchandise. They set up their stall outside the tents to seize the opportunity to gain business. The vendors are all very polite and courteous when questions and bargains are being asked. Therefore I think it leads to quite a high customer satisfaction.


Partnerships (Example of sponsorship)

This river regatta is jointly organized by Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA), Water Venture, Civil Service Club of Singapore and Boat Quay Business Association. And they are sponsored by Public Utility Board (PUB), Singapore Land Authority (SLA) and UOB. These names are very big in the Singapore context. Many people would know who they are when their names are mentioned. This is a good thing as it shows that this event is an important event because many well known names are sponsoring and organizing this 26th Singapore Rive Regatta.


Promotion

The river regatta advertises mainly through the internet. Informations about the event are post on different websites such as the SDBA, PUB, Water Venture and Canadian dragons Singapore websites. They provide details about the race, rules and regulations and also the site plan for this regatta. Besides that, informations about this regatta are also passed through word of mouth. As this is considered as one of the major event in the Dragon Boat Race industry, people who are active paddlers are bound to talk about it. As they pass around the informations to their friends, more and more people will know about this event.

Programming

The programs for the river regatta are neatly organized. They allow all the different teams to have ample rest time before they start their respective event but it is also planned in a way that it does not make the viewers feel that bored. Every 5 to 10 minutes there will be one race that is ready to go. For example, participants who are in heat no. 14 have just finished their event and they are waiting for their next heat, no. 20. In between heat no. 14 and 20, other heats are going on so that the viewers can watch it and at the same time allowing the participants from heat no. 14 to rest. It is very nicely organized and there are not much confusion occurred with regards to the event’s time.

People

There are road marshals at the boarding area, to make sure that the place is cleared for entry and exit. The head marshal is not exactly very friendly because he was shouting through the loud hailer and it tends to irritate most of the participants, audience and some passer bys. However there are some marshals who are very friendly. They cheer the different teams on as they are walking into the boarding area. And whenever there are people who walked past, be it the participants or the tourists, some of them would not hesitate to smile to them. This would give a good impression on the courtesy that some of the marshal give.

Price

There are not admission tickets or whatsoever being charged on those who came to the event and watched the race. However, the teams, school or clubs are charged when they participant for this river regatta. For every dragon boat that each team send out, there would be a fee of $75 being charged to the team. For example, if Team A has participated in three events and for each of the event they send out two boats, a total amount of $450 is being charged to Team A. As for those who came specifically to watch the race, they have to spend money on the travel cost and food cost because they have to travel all the way down to Boat Quay to catch this event.

Recommendation

I think that this river regatta has did quite a wonderful job in its marketing mix, because from what I have saw, most of the different marketing mix had been operated very well. Especially in their programming. The viewers will not get bored because there are always different races going on. The area is very neatly set up, with ample space for all the participants. However, there are still some rooms for improvements to make this event into a more successful event.

Firstly, they should advertise more on dragon boating and this event, like placing posters, banners at the bus stops, and some short commercials on television. All this could boost their recognition. And when more people find out about dragon boating, they might be interested to join and as time goes by they would be able to join these competitions. Next, they should have more vendors situated around the vicinity to sell different dragon boat products. Because it is situated at the central area, tourists would walk through and fro the place. And if there are more vendors around, it would attract those tourists to buy. Next, i think that SDBA could tie up with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and get The Orchard Hotel Singapore to sponsor this regatta. That way, they could get international teams from all over the world to come down to participate in this river regatta. They could then stay at the Orchard Hotel which is situated very near Boat Quay. By doing so, it would give a boost in the tourism dollars.

Lastly, friendliness of the staff could be improved. As mentioned above, some staffs are good, some are bad. They should try to at least be more polite when they want to do something. If tourists saw one of the marshals shouting, screaming and scolding like a mad man, it would not only scare the tourists, but also leave a bad impression.

Tourism & Economy

As mentioned above, this river regatta is situated at Boat Quay, it is the place where tourists would go to take the river taxi. Besides that, it is located beside Fullerton hotel and opposite Asian civilization museum. Therefore, tourists are bound to see the race when they are in this area, because the race is in Singapore River. Even though this event is going on, the river taxis that tour around the Singapore River does not stop operating. Tourists who board the river taxi would be able to see the race at a very close range, and they took pictures when they are in the river taxi. When they go back to their country, they will talk about their experience when they are in Singapore and automatically, they will talk about the dragon boat race because it is not something that happens every day in Singapore River. This event is only taken place once every year. Therefore, through word of mouth, it might attract people from different countries to come visit Singapore during the November period. As for those tourists who are staying in Fullerton Hotel, once they walked out of the hotel, they would be able to watch the race. This would also lead to positive word of mouth and hence increase tourism rate in Singapore.

Lastly, there are clubs that are made up of overseas country for example the Canadian Association of Singapore, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and maybe different teams that come from Japan, Hong Kong, USA, Britain, and Germany. These teams are made out of their respective countrymen and some locals. The family members of these participants might to fly down to Singapore to watch them race and also to visit them, thus, increasing the tourism dollars.

By being able to attract the tourists to visit Singapore, it would give the Singapore’s economy a boost. As the tourists would have to purchase air tickets and depending on where they are from, some air tickets are not cheap. Next, they would have to find a place to stay and have to find food to eat and lastly, they would go around shopping and buying things. All these would bring economic values to Singapore. As mentioned above, the SDBA are charging fees from the different teams and these fees would help boost the economy.

During these two days, business in MacDonald and Burger King increase because many participants would go there for their breakfast, lunch or dinner or just even for a quick bite. During these two days, there is an increase in the usage of the MRT. As the easiest way to reach the Singapore River is through MRT, therefore a lot of people took the public transport in the duration of this event. Lastly, the tents, signages, portable toilets and equipments for this river regatta need to be either rent or bought. Even though it may seem to be a very insignificant amount individually, but once the cost of everything is added up, the amount accumulated would be very big. All these amount would help boost Singapore’s economy.

Conclusion

Overall, I find that this event is a success because everything is nicely organized, not much confusion, conflicts or what not happened. The races are carried out nicely and the only obstruction that causes the race to stop is the rain. But once the skies cleared, the race resumes quickly. The venue (Singapore River) makes the atmosphere very different as compared to reservoirs such as Bedok Reservoir. The ambience is much livelier and the vibe is different and also partly because this river regatta is considered a major event in dragon boating.

Though everything is a success, there are some rooms for improvement as mentioned above. Firstly, SDBA should advertise more vigorously and not just limiting themselves in only advertising on the internet. They should also emphasis more on this sport as it is increasingly popular in Singapore. Next, as mentioned above, they could tie up with STB and Orchard Hotel to have International teams from over the world to participate in this event.

Lastly, the politeness of some of the marshals could be improved. And lastly, they should place more vendors selling various dragon boat merchandise so that not only the participants but also the tourists would buy. All in all this event is very epic and i am looking forward for the 27th Singapore River Regatta next year in November.