Singapore will get a new Nature hub in the North with a new Rainforest Park and relocation of the Singapore Bird Park. Mandai already is home to the Singapore Zoo, River Safari and Night Safari. The planned nature hub will have 126 ha allocated to it and it will help Singapore compete in the fast growing nature tourism industry.
I hope the company will create a Friends of Mandai membership card to benefit Singaporeans as I know how Friends of the Zoo card did for many families, especially those staying in the north. The development would help increase visitorship to the area, as the Jurong bird park already sees 800,000 per year. This will indeed be a popular hit to home dwellers in the north like Woodlands, Marsiling, Yew Tee, Sembawang and Yishun.
Nature tourism is fast growing in the industry, said Ms Alicia Seah, Dynasty Travel’s director of public relations and communications, and the “bundle of nature parks and zoological gardens” in Mandai could help boost visitorship to Singapore.
This plan started around 2010, where Singapore Tourism Board invited Temasek to explore concepts for Mandai. “The site to be developed is outside the Nature Reserves. It includes the former Mandai orchid farm and an abandoned village, and is along the way to the existing WRS attractions.” – Temasek. The developer of the project, Mandai Safari Park Holdings announced that they will be developing the attractions on previously occupied or developed land to reduce the impact on the nature reserve.
How Temasek partners Singapore Government to rejuvenate Mandai area.
Image source: StraitsTimes & Mandai Safari Park Holdings.