Enjoy Underwater Sensation

Limitations natural resources does not necessarily make Singapore out of ideas to attract tourists. Various attractions are built in this tiny country, including the aquarium contains 45 million liters of water with more than 100,000 marine biota.

"This is the largest aquarium in the world," said Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, the owner Genting Group and Resorts World Sentosa. Aquarium opened to the public on 22 November last year was built in the Resort World Sentosa (RWS), the integrated tourism area in Sentosa Island, Singapore.

Aquarium called South East Asia (SEA) Aquarium offers underwater scenery packed in glass panels. SEA Aquarium is one of the attractions that are part of the water rides Marine Life Park (MLP) in RWS.

MLP also offer other objects, the Adventure Cove Waterpark or water playground with various types of swimming pools and water slides. "That way, visitors can choose the type of water by wet or dry," said Tan Hee Teck, Chief Executive Officer and President of the RWS Genting Singapore PLC Venue.

About 200 journalists from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Russia, and Singapore, which invited RWS management during the inauguration of the tourist area, late last year, had the opportunity to see the splendor of SEA Aquarium.

Each group of journalists from each country like a group of tourists accompanied by two guides assigned to explain a wide range of marine life in the aquarium. There are 20 touch screen panel contains information about marine animals and their habitats.

By paying 29 Singapore dollars (equivalent to USD 225 000), visitors can enjoy the beauty of the sea in the company of a guide. So, what makes this aquarium is different?

At the outset, enters SEA Aquarium is like a visit to Sea World in the tourist area of ??Ancol, Jakarta. However, how to package and technologies offered by these places is much more classy.

The main attraction is the Aquarium SEA giant glass panels with a length of 36 meters and height of 8.3 meters. In the glass thickness of 70 centimeters, there are manta rays that flicker charming, beauty napoleon fish, passing the giant grouper, and hundreds of small fish chasing.

"It's so peaceful to see the underwater sights like this," said Nath (33), tourists from Thailand, who is on holiday in Singapore with his wife and son.

The giant glass panels weighing 250 tonnes or the equivalent of three stacked double-decker bus. In general, visitors are always using the moment in the glass panel to take photos.

In addition to the giant panels, at the aquarium tunnel there are also giant glass contains about 200 sharks from 12 different species, such as hammerhead sharks, black fin reef sharks and nurse sharks.

On the other there are also glass panels containing small endemic marine life such as crabs Japanese living in cool temperate waters, moray eels, and a wide range of coral reefs.

Hotels in aquarium

About 100,000 of the 800 species of marine life in the aquarium's water comes from ten zones covering 49 different habitats, ranging from open sea in Asia, the Arabian Gulf, to the freshwater lake in eastern Africa.

"Most are from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines," said Joanna, one of the guides SEA Aquarium.

Biodiversity is the main attraction for visitors discover the beauty of the underwater world without having been to the area of ??origin biota.

If not satisfied simply enjoy the beauty of the surrounding underwater aquarium, visitors can also stay in a deluxe room which directly overlooks the largest glass dome at the aquarium. This is called creative work by Tan Hee Teck.

There is a hotel with 11 suites with views of the open ocean is priced at 2400 Singapore dollars or equivalent to Rp 19 million per night. Facilities that surpass five-star hotel is intended for the millionaire who had the pleasure of going to the underwater world.

In addition to hotel rooms, there is also a place to eat called The Ocean Restaurant aquarium surrounded by glass panels from the wall up to the roof. This area is still in the SEA Aquarium.

In addition to rake in tourist groups and families, the SEA Aquarium also offers educational packages to attract students. They work together with the school who want to visit the aquarium through a variety of learning programs for students to understand the underwater world and its conservation efforts.

Biswajit Guha, Director of Education, Conservation and Research MLP, explains most of the marine life in the Aquarium SEA imported directly from the open ocean, partly obtained from the supplier.

To decide what kind of species are combined in a single pane of glass or not, the MLP has a research facility Marine Aquaculture and Research Center (MARC). In addition to research, the facility is also used for fish farming.

The entire biota quarantined advance in a separate pool in MARC before being placed in the aquarium. It is intended that the species be able to adapt to the new environment.

Biswajit added, handling key biota Aquarium SEA is a regular feeding and changing water regularly so as not to stress the animal. Aquarium SEA has a team which monitors the condition of each biota intensively.

Investment

In addition to SEA Aquarium and Adventure Cove Waterpark, RWS also has a Universal Studios Singapore, the six-star hotel with a capacity of 1500 rooms, 60 restaurants, a casino, and a meeting room that can accommodate 12,000 guests. The resort area of ??49 acres on Sentosa Island is worth the investment of 7 billion Singapore dollars.

With such a variety of attractions, Tan Sri Lim targets to bring in 17 million tourists to the RWS in 2013. RWS will "force" tourists extend their stay by leveraging Singapore's position as a transit country.

"We are confident that the target can be realized. Moreover, with the increasing number of flights that stop over to Singapore, "said Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay.

To achieve these targets, Robin Goh, Assistant Director of Communications RWS, admitted his side work with local tourism agencies in Indonesia, Malaysia, and China became the largest contributor to the presence of tourists in the country covering an area of ??710 square kilometers. Inviting the media from a number of countries, recognized Goh, also became effective promotional event.

At the opening of RWS premiere on December 7, 2012, presented a variety of attractions, such as fireworks, renowned soprano Sarah Brightman, and orchestra performances. RWS also attended the opening party of the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.

RWS is a big dream of Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay to realize a world-class integrated tourism area in Singapore that can be seeded in Asia. Tan Sri Lim, a businessman from Malaysia, is also the owner of Genting Highland Resorts, "neighbor country".

RWS management a challenge for Indonesia. Satisfaction visitors looked at thousands of marine life at SEA Aquarium certainly not comparable when looking directly manta rays and green turtles Derawan Islands, East Kalimantan, or the coral reefs in Raja Ampat, Papua.

If Tan Sri Lim dared to set a target of 17 million tourists in 2013, mostly foreign tourists, to visit the artificial tourism, what about Indonesia, which has a variety of natural attractions. Of course, this depends on the seriousness of the government