Tourism roles and economic value of the festival / event

Tourist attraction
Holding an event such as the SB will definitely help to generate hype for the place as when promoting for the event, many advertising methods will be used ranging from internet to word-of-mouth. This will thus make the public aware to this event and attract them to visit it regardless of them being locals or tourists from other countries. Finally, this will cause a boom in the tourist receipts and economy as foreigners might be interested in how a Singapore art event looks like and also the famous artworks that are displayed at the exhibition. Organizers from other countries Biennale or art events might also come and visit the event to see the difference between the two countries perspective of art and the reason it attracted such a huge audience of more than 800,000 people in 2006.
When tourists visit Singapore, they will need to spend on lodgings, food, shopping, air tickets and lastly the admission fees for the SB. All these revenue earned from these tourists will helped to boost the Singapore economy. Although the tourist main purpose is to take a tour around the Singapore Biennale, some of them might also visit other famous attractions in Singapore such as the zoo or the Bird Park.

Animator
As the Biennale is hosted in Singapore for the second time, healthy word-of-mouth will be generated as the Biennale in 2006 was a success. This will cause those who missed the first Biennale to be interested to visit it and find out the reason behind its success. Furthermore as it is considered a new event, people who are bored of the other attractions in Singapore may visit the Biennale as they seek to get whole-new experience. As for those who have gone to the previous SB, if they had an enjoyable time back in 2006, they will definitely want to revisit the event.
In order for the public to enter and tour the Biennale, they will be required to pay for admission ticket which is form of revenue to the event.

Image Making
In the past before the Biennale was hosted in Singapore, the place used to host the SB in City Hall was the Old Supreme Court. Nobody in the world would love to visit this place as if we really do visit this place; we will either be the convict being trialed or the relative of the convict and will mostly end up leaving the place in a sad mood.
However, by holding the Biennale here which is an event that should make people happy after viewing those beautiful artworks, the whole perception of the place will be inverted from a dull and old place to a lively place. Furthermore, many people are also very interested to find out how the Old Supreme Court in Singapore looks like as in the past one was not allowed to tour and walk around the area freely like not as there were court in sessions. Henceforth by attracting people who are curious about the Old Supreme Court design layout as it is now accessible to the public at only $5 to $10 will help to increase the amount of cash flow in the economy.

Place marketing
One of the motives of this event is partially to help to create awareness to the public that artists in Singapore also have an eye for art and are able to draw as well as artists abroad. This will therefore make Singapore more prominent in the world in other areas other than just having the best airline in the world. Not only will this event pave the way for those local artists to international fame, it also helps to improve the confidence of people either locally or abroad to engage a local artist to have their drawings done or depict a picture of scenery.

Catalyst
One catalyst effect of this event is that it helped to increase the number of people visiting the Singapore Flyer due to the package that SB is offering with the Singapore Flyer. Since Singaporeans are known for their “afraid to lose” attitude, most people will surely take up the chance to sign up for the package especially those who have not been on the Singapore Flyer. Other than that, it also helped to improve business such as the food-court or fast-food restaurant nearby as the SB do not sell food inside of it. Therefore this will help to increase the revenue earned in that area.

Conclusion
Personally, I felt that all the elements of the marketing mix have being utilized effectively except for the promotion part. I felt that the Biennale may had concentrate too much on the other elements of the marketing mix or have slack behind thinking that the first Biennale was a success and that they would have no need to worry about the promotion factor of the Biennale. I find the pricing and place of the SB being the two best revised factor of the marketing mix as the price was set in such a way that it was affordable to the public and attract them even though the economy is not very good and stable. The place was also chosen in such a way that it could help to generate interest from the public to visit a place where one would not even go in the past.
Though the promotion factor was neglected, I was very amazed at how the whole event was being presented as I was constantly amazed by how the art pieces were being layout especially those maggots.
Overall, I believe that the Singapore Biennale 2008 was also a success and that I will be looking forward to the next Biennale being hosted in Singapore which I trust will be an even much better and greater one than this year.