The Anime Festival Asia 2009 returns to Singapore for the second year. Following a largely successful 2008 event, it promises to return with much more thump this year. Visitors can look forward to to witness and feel more than what they enjoyed last year. It will be the occasion for all anime, cosplay, and animation lovers to be there.
More than 50,000 visitors are expected to turn up for Anime Festival Asia 2009, which promises to deliver a much bigger musical programme than last year, with various more stars attending the event compared to the event the previous year.
In addition to the “I Love Anisong” music event, anime supporters will be elated at the launch of “Moe Moe Kyun Maid Café” at the event. Moe Moe is a Japanese slang expression for attraction to sexy and pretty person, commonly a imagined perfect young girl. Even if you are not an anime fan, the girls clothed up to flawlessness will fascinate you. Organizers of the occasion has indicated they may spin off the maids as a performing group or even put together “Moe Moe Kyun Mad Café” as a permanent café. So it will be a great time for you to spot these girls first hand!
Many performers from Japan will be performing at the fair, and it will also feature Singaporean girls who will be wearing clothes as maids to serve customers at the festival’s on-site “Moe Moe Kyun Maid Café”.
A particular feature of the event would be the 30th anniversary of the hit anime franchise Gundam. Models of mobile suits from the numerous Gundam series will be on parade, together with Gundam model kits for trade, which are exclusive to the occasion. Gundam fans will be in for a serious treat!
Top regional cosplayers are projected to turn up for the inaugural Regional Cosplay Championship also being held at the event. If you are a cosplay fan, you will need to be there the event!
There is also a Kids Land area for children not more than the age of eight. Children can be trained to make sushi and have their pictures taken with their favourite superheroes. Amongst the superheroes who will be at the extravaganza will be Power Rangers and Masked Rider.
For business people and industry players, the fair includes the first Animation Asia Conference 2009 on November 20 2009. You can do your networking with trade associates in the same industry; there will not be a better event to attend if you are involved in the anime trade.
Anime Festival Asia 2009 promises to be a events packed episode. It will be hosted at Singapore’s Suntec Convention Centre from November 20 2009 to November 22 2009. It will be at Halls 403 and 404 and will open from 10am to 9pm. It will pay to be here early as the number of guests estimated for the event will be sizeable.
For guests to Singapore, you may wish to know the Singapore accommodations nearest to the place would be those close to the Marina Bay or Beach Road vicinity. If you make your reservations in this two areas, the event position is all but a fifteen minutes walk away.
You should make the reservation for your accommodation stay quickly as November is deemed a peak season month in Singapore, and hotel rooms are projected to be taken up pretty early.
Get your Singapore hotels booking for your stay in Singapore. You can choose the hotels for the event along Marina Bay area for hotels which are closed to the event location.
Visitors to Singapore will recognize the national past times of Singaporeans - shopping and eating. For shopping enthusiasts, Singapore boast a world well-known shopping belt, Orchard Road. There are numerous shopping complexes at the stretch of road, with Takashimaya, Wisma Atria, The Heeren, Centrepoint, Plaza Singapura plus a whole lot more!
The latest entrant to the list is ION Orchard, which is designed by foremost architecture firm Benoy. Located at 2 Orchard Turn, it is besides Wisma Atria, opposite Wheelock Place in addition to being opposite Tangs Plaza (different facing).
ION Orchard promises to bring together the world’s top brands for their stores, all inside one shopping complex. It has a total of eight levels of shopping space, four above ground level, and four below, bringing a sum of 66,000 square metres of shopping space. There are over 300 shopping, food and beverage and entertainment outlets can be found there. These include global’s top luxury brands, a number of which are making their debut in Singapore.
Amongst the stores you can discover at ION Orchard, you can find brands like Korloff, a high-end jewellery collection from Paris. Korloff is making its boutique introduction in Singapore, and offer innovative combinations of materials and colours for its collection.
Local favourite brands like Lim Chee Guan, which is well known for its barbecued meat, start its first shop in Orchard, at ION Orchard. This popular brand has been well loved by Singaporeans and visitors alike have been here for many years. Most visitors to Singapore are asked by their friends to bring back the famous barbequed beef, this is one brand name which will not disappoint any friends!
Another prominent brand at the retail complex is Shu Uemura. Although the brand is not unusual in Singapore, it lets clientele experience its skincare and makeup services in a single spot, at their new beauty table in its flagship boutique.
Even Cold Storage Singapore, famous for their garden-fresh provisions, is at the compound with its ThreeSixty Market Place, which is targeted at higher end markets, who are looking for finer products.
For Apple product lovers, you will be pleased to learn EpiCentre, a premium reseller of Apple products, has a shop which offers Bang & Olufsen products, Acme bags in addition to Sennheiser headphones.
There are other host of other brands like the French chocolate Valrhona, gourmet food items Dean & Deluca and Oriental glass art dealer, Tittot.
ION Orchard operates daily from 10am to 10pm. The nearest MRT station is Orchard MRT station.
There are various Singapore hotels sited around the surrounding area of ION Orchard, you can choose amongst the list of hotels in Orchard Road. Make sure you choose something which suits your budget and travel plans. Have pleasure exploring Orchard Road and ION Orchard!
Many visitors to Singapore maybe do not realize that there are several intriguing things to do while in Singapore. If you are thinking of just the Singapore Zoological Gardens, Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, Sentosa etc., it is time you consider hitting the roof!
Hong Kong boast splendid night cityscape views, Singapore has them too. To fully enjoy the impressive views, you should check out the following places, which will allow you to dine, wine and enjoy the night cityscape views of Singapore.
There are several places in Singapore which you can do that. The ORGO at 1 Esplanade Drive (Esplanade Roof Terrace) is one of them. It operates from 5pm to 2am daily, and offers a incredible 360 degrees scenic view of Marina Bay, the upcoming Marina Sands Integrated Resort, the Singapore Flyer and the skyscrapers of the Singapore’s Central Business District. The view is just one part of it, you get to enjoy the exotic cocktails created by a Japanese celebrity bartender. If you feel the warmth maybe a problem to you, you will be pleased to know that there are three air-conditioned glass houses, which are 3metres high structures that can sit eight to fifteen people.
A short distance away is MR PUNCH WINEBAR, a rooftop bar with a mid-level view of Stamford Road’s cityscape. It is located on the sixth floor of a toy museum - Mint Museum of Toys, at 26 Seah Street. The pub is named after the traditional English puppet show featuring the characters Punch and his wife Judy. Be pleasurably bowled over by the owner’s own collection of over fifty original enamel posters and tin plates, some dating as far back as the 1890’s. One particular enamel sign, a retro Quaker Oats sign, is estimated to be worth over US$150,000! The signs are collected from countries like Japan, Hong Kong, India and Taiwan. The bar also boasts a 1920s L-shaped wooden counter that was from a remittance center. Visited by mostly young professionals who go there for dinner and cheap drinks in a homely setting, the draw of Mr Punch Winebar is not just the view, food and drinks, but also the heritage element of the atmosphere.
MR PUNCH WINEBAR operates from 4pm to midnight on weekdays and till 2am on weekdays. It closes on Sundays.
There are several Singapore hotels around the vicinity. If you enjoy the night views, remember to book a hotel room near the locations. One good place to be at would be staying around the Marina Area. There are a lot of great hotel deals in Singapore which you can book a comfortable room at affordable rates!
If you think there are only these two places for spectacular night views of Singapore, well, there are more!
HELIPAD at No. 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, The Central, is another. It offers wonderful bird’s-eye view of Clarke Quay and the Singapore River. It opens daily from 6pm to 2am on weekends and till 3am on weekends and are closed on Sundays.
At THE NEST, DXO at Colours by the Bay at the Esplanade Mall, you can enjoy the view of the full of activity food street at Colours by the Bay and Esplanade Drive. It is also by the Formula 1 race circuit.
BREEZE at The Scarlet at 33 Erskine Road offers the views of bustling Chinatown, is another place you can chill out and take pleasure in the night views of Singapore.
So remember this, Singapore also offers great night views. You just require to hit the roofs and get pleasure from them while you wine and dine.
7
May
Posted on 2009 under Events, Travel News |
One of Asia’s most established trade event for the infocomm and media industries, CommunicAsia 2009, will be held in Singapore Expo from June 16 2009 to June 19 2009. It will also be held in conjunction with EnterpriseIT2009, InteractiveDME, BroadcastAsia2009.
This huge international trade show has attracted more than 32,000 overseas attendees in 2008, and similar numbers are expected to visit the show despite the global economic downturn.
Visitors and exhibitors from all over the world are expected to be present at the event, including visitors from Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam, not to mention from host country Singapor.
The event highlights includes PTV/Mobile Entertainment, WiMAX and a host of other innovative products, services and ideas, presented by thousands of exhibiting companies from over 60 countries/regions.
The event is being held at Singapore Expo, which is on the eastern part of Singapore. As there are no hotels which are nearby the venue, visitors to the event would need to plan the journey properly to minimize unnecessary delays in the traveling time.
Singapore has one of the best public transport infrastructure in the world, as such, you have many options to reach the event venue. If you are traveling by train (MRT or Mass Rapid Transit), alight at Expo Station (East Bound line). This is the station which serves Singapore Expo, once you reach there you will be able to access the various halls via covered walkways. If you are traveling from various parts of Singapore towards the station, make sure you alight at the Tanah Merah station (on the East West Line) and transfer to the train heading to Expo Station. It is not necessary to do any transfer if you are traveling from Changi International Airport train station.
You can also travel by taxis/cabs, which is also freely available at the event venue for your return trip.
If you wish to travel by bus, you should take bus nos. 12, 24, 38, which will alight you besides carpark G on Upper Changi Road East or outside Hall 1 on Upper Changi Road East. You can also take bus nos. 35, which you can alight beside Carpark J on Xilin Avenue
As large number of overseas visitors are expected, you are strongly urged to make reservations for your accommodation immediately after you confirm your visit.
Hotel room rates for CommunicAsia 2009 in Singapore ranges from S$115 upwards, which is very reasonable for high seasonal convention periods. Nearest Singapore hotels to Singapore Expo would be those around Changi, East Coast and Joo Chiat. However these areas are not served by trains (MRT), so you will need to take the cabs/taxis.
You should consider hotels in other areas as well if you intend to make visits to other places besides the exhibition area.
14
Apr
Posted on 2009 under Uncategorized |
If you are visiting Singapore for the Singtel Formula 1 Grand Prix come September 2009, you would be interested to know that The Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Singapore Tourism Board have reduced the Formula One levy on hotel rooms to a four night period.
The levy will be in effect from September 24 2009 to September 27 2009. There are thirteen (13) hotels which has been designated as “trackside hotels”. These hotels will have a 30 per cent levy on their total revenue. All other tourist hotels will have a 20 per cent levey on their total revenue.
The trackside hotels includes the following hotels:
Carlton Hotel, Conrad Centennial Singapore, Fairmont Singapore, Grand Parkk City Hall, Mandarin Oriental Singapore, Marina Mandarin, Naumi, Peninsula Excelsior Hotel, Raffles Hotel, Swissotel the Stamford, The Fullerton Hotel, The Pan Pacific Hotel, The Ritz-Carlton Millennia Singapore.
If you are visiting Singapore for the Formula 1 race, you may wish to take note hotels in Singapore during that period will generally be higher and occupancy are expected to be very high. It is highly recommended you make the bookings for your Singapore hotels earlier, as soon as you obtain your air tickets if possible.
For the past few years, prices of hotel rooms in Singapore has been sky rocketing. Whatever it was reported in the news extra isn’t exactly the truth. Official figures are often misleading and visitors who visit Singapore regularly on business or for leisure will know this.
For example, a room at Hotel Rendezvous was around $150 per room per night back in 2003. It rose to almost $250 in beginning 2008, hitting as high as $300 in last quarter of 2008.
What hotels in Singapore didnt realized was there is a pending downturn, in fact a huge downturn coming up. Due to the economic crisis which start hitting Singapore in the mid of third quarter and last quarter of 2008, hotels faced a sharp drop in their occupancy rates, and didn’t really smarten up till now.
Hotels are still trying to put up a strong false front, but it just could not last long. There is just not enough visitors going to Singapore. Comments like “We are still experiencing high occupancy” was seen at news late 2008. But the real fact is many hotels are experiencing extremely low occupancy rates. The exorbitant hotel rates has to come down!
True enough it did! Singapore hotels are dropping prices in order to attract more visitors. It is now much more attractive to visit Singapore! Business travellers can now save on the costs to visit their Singapore offices and counterparts. Visitors should also consider booking hotels nearby to the Central Business District or Central Shopping District instead, it would mean further savings.
Visitors to Singapore should really take advantage of the new price drops now, to avoid the hotel operators trying to jerk up the prices as the economy slowly recovers.
Source: Prices obtained from Hotels.Online Singapore. Prices quoted are in Singapore dollars.
The company behind Hard Rock Cafe, which owns around 124 Hard Rock cafes and 9 Hard Rock Hotels around the world, will open a hotel in Singapore next year.
It will be a luxurious hotel based on rock-and-roll-themed interiors. Hard Rock Hotel Singapore will be one of the six hotels at the Resorts World at Sentosa, an entertainment complex comprising casino, Universal Studios theme park, an oceanarium and 1,800 hotel rooms being built by a unit of Genting Group.
The hotel is expected to charge around S$500 per room night, for a giant room with two queen sized beds and a big screen TV. This rate is almost double of what the current average room rate for Singapore hotels.
There are many luxury hotels in Singapore currently, with the famous Raffles Hotel heading the list.
If you are visiting Singapore for the first time, or are not familiar with Singapore, chances are you will have problems choosing amongst the almost 300 Singapore hotels available.
Chances are you know which area you are visiting, say Central Business District, or near Orchard Road for example. However, Central Business District alone can be a large area, and can be quite expensive too.
Hotels.Online Singapore has come up with an innovative way of listing the hotels. You can now list the available hotels by street or road names. Singapore hotels by street names give you a list of street or roads names with hotels along it. The presented results shows a short description of the street/road, with information on the nearest MRT (train) station, and a map showing the area, all very important information for your visit.
We understand that this will be further extended to allow users to search for street names which will match the closest available street with hotel!
For example, if you are visiting the Central Business District, you can choose from a list of available Singapore hotels along Bencoolen Street, which is just minutes from Central Business District and Central Shopping District! Imagine the savings you have from the room stay and you can probably spend an extra day or two in Singapore.
Even if you are visiting Singapore on business, the trip need not cost a bomb. There are many hotels along parts of Singapore which are still “near” to the Central Business District.
Hotels along Beach Road in Singapore, for example, is only a few minutes from the Central Business District! There are also roads like Jalan Besar, Serangoon Road etc., which are all a few minutes away. Some of the hotels along these roads are going for less than S$100 per room night. Travel time from these roads to the CBD shouldn’t be more than 10 - 15mins by cab, and there are MRT (train) stations which will bring you into and from the CBD for no more than a few Singapore dollars too.
If you want further savings, consider hotels along the roads like Geylang or even Joo Chiat. For example, Happy Hotel which is a budget class hotel at the end of Geylang, and is only around 10 - 15mins from CBD, costs starts from only S$60 per room night!
There are so many Singapore hotels to choose from, and you do not need to stick to a more expensive one if you are traveling on a tight budget. Or the savings you made from the hotel room stay would mean more food, and shopping!
In the next part, we will write on the information for visitors going to Singapore for leisure. We will help you make smarter choices when booking Singapore hotels.
Selecting a Singapore hotel for your stay in Singapore couldnt be easier, all you need to do is do a little research.
If you are visiting Singapore for business like many, you can consider hotels a little outside the Central Business District in Singapore.
There are quite a few roads leading to the Central Business District in Singapore. Such roads includes Bras Basah, Jalan Besar towards Bencoolen Street, Beach Road, Victoria Street etc.
All these roads has many Singapore hotels which are priced more economically as compared to those right smack in the middle of the Central Business District like Fullerton Hotel, Swissotel Merchant Court etc., just to name a few.
There is a recently opened one Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen, which is only around S$180, and is less than 5 - 10mins from the Central Business District AND Central Shopping District (Orchard Road)! Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen is not the only one, one Bencoolen Street which Ibis Singapore is at, there are many other hotels including Bayview Hotel, Summer View Hotel, Hotel Bencoolen, Hotel Rendezvous etc.
On Victoria Street, you have choices which includes Victoria Hotel, Carlton Hotel etc.
If you learn to choose wisely, your stay in Singapore could be much more affordable. Bear in mind taxi trips from the hotel to the Central Business District should not costs you more than $15 per trip (usually less than 10mins too, depending on traffic conditions), and that is quoting on the high side! Imagine your savings!
You can find all these hotels at Hotels.Online Singapore (http://hotels.online.com.sg).
In our next part, we will discuss about which hotels you should book if you want to save even more, even if you are on business trip.
* Prices quoted are in Singapore dollars and as per Hotels.Online Singapore, accurate as at March 2009.
