Yeoh Siew Hoon
Later this month, Oct. 27 to 31 to be exact, the entire travel world will descend upon Singapore. Well, at least, that's what the tourism board hopes they'll do.
The board has created this week of travel industry events and branded it TravelRave, which tends to make everyone think it's like one of those full-moon parties on exotic islands like Samui where you, well, rave the night and morning away.
Truth is, I think they named it such because by the end of the week, you could end up raving mad from running from booth to booth and party to party, remembering whom you met where and why, and what you learned and then instantly forgot because you've got all those emails to respond to while you're away from the office.
What TravelRave is, is a week of very serious travel industry events, which range from the WIT Conference, which kicks it off (full disclosure: I run WIT), ITB Asia, the Asia Travel Leaders Summit and a slew of other gatherings. The idea is to tell the world that, hey, if you are in travel and you want to do business in Asia, this is the week to be here.
I call it the Travel F1 actually, because for industry types, it's the equivalent of our Formula 1 race weekend.
By the way, anyone who thinks Singapore is boring or too organized or too controlled should visit the city during the Formula 1 weekend -- and not just for the race. The seventh F1, just completed, was the funnest and wettest ever, as well as the quietest.
Quietest as in the cars are less noisy, and I have to say, I kind of miss the visceral feeling I associate with that adrenalin-pumping engine noise associated with F1 racers. Not that I (and thousands of others like me) actually go for the race. To me, FI is like cricket: You see a lot of action (or rather, no action, in the case of the latter) but you know something is going on, and the only time anyone pays attention is when there's a crash or someone hits a wicket or whatever they call it in that enigmatic sport.
Me, I go for the food and concerts. This year I was lucky enough to be invited to the Singapore Suite, where celebrity chefs whipped up concoctions like Thai green curry in dumplings, which melt in your mouth like curried marshmallows, and of course, lots of Champagne.
But I had to drag myself from the foie gras dim sum and lychee-infused martinis because I wanted to catch Robbie Williams on center stage -- and what a concert. The moment he came on stage, the skies opened up and Singapore put on the kind of tropical thunderstorm that makes me proud to live on the equator.
Yet, for two hours, the British pop star put on the most amazing show. What a consummate professional.
I didn't want to pour water on his parade by telling him that Singapore has the highest number of lighting strikes per capita in the world. And besides, everyone was having too much fun to care. The concert was, in a word, electrifying.
The next night, Jennifer Lopez played, and I heard it wasn't as much fun because it was too dry.
Anyway, if I survived F1, I will survive TravelRave. See you in Singapore.
Yeoh Siew Hoon, editorial director of Northstar Travel Media Asia, is the founder and editor of Web in Travel, a content and community platform for online travel professionals in the Asia-Pacific region.