1193. A travel agency's all-or-nothing optional tour to Mont Tremblant, Canada

Oct 15, 2013
Sheraton Hotel, near Montreal Airport

It is just too competitive in the travel industry and so the management keeps prices low by offering optional tours as "hidden costs"  To be competitive, the travel agencies in China and Hong Kong advertise "cheap" tours. However, the tourists waste much time having to visit jewellery or souvenir shops as part of the tours as they get commissions from the shops for purchases.

In my travel with a Singapore travel agency, a new marketing strategy was to tell the 36 travellers from Singapore that all 36 must opt for the optional tour to Mont Tremblant (US$50/person) or none will go. Just one objection would do. The tour guide asked each party individually and there was a consensus to go. As an incentive, there was a "free" trip to visit the 3rd largest waterfall the day before.

I find this marketing strategy to be blackmail. The management should have included this inside the package as the group would have to spend the whole afternoon on their own in Montreal city, after visiting it in the morning if 1/36 objected to visiting Mont Tremblant.    

Singapore travellers are not that sophisticated and many look only for "cheap" tours rather than quality tours. This is mass tourism and profits are dependent on volumes rather than quality. The same applies to other businesses catering to the masses. In the morning, it was drizzling but the sun shone brightly at Mont Tremblant and the visit was much better than loitering around the city of Montreal on our own.      
 

 

1193. A sprint past a graveyard in Scotland in 1969

Sheraton Hotel near Montreal Airport, Canada
Oct 15, 2013

When my coach passed a cemetery, I recalled an incident in 1969 when a kind Scottish couple in their late 50s invited me to their house for dinner.  I had arrived in Glasgow to study veterinary medicine under the British Government's Colombo Plan scholarship. At 19 years of age, I had never boarded an airplane and I flew by BOAC to London alone. At the railway station to catch a train from London to Glasgow, a Caucasian Londoner warned me not to leave my bags unattended. At the Glasgow railway station, 3 young people greeted me and took me to Kelvin Lodge where I would be staying.
Some time later, this Scottish couple invited me to their house for dinner as they were to be my guardians. I took a bus to their house and had a pleasant dinner. At around 10 pm, I had to catch the bus back.

There was a cemetery I had to pass by. Like the image in this article. Neat rows. Darkness of night in the Winter of 1969. I was a 19-year-old boy whose furthest trip from home was to Bentong, Pahang by train and bus and had not encountered funeral wakes and visits to grave yards in Singapore. I walked as fast as I could, covering my neck with the scarves against the bitter cold breezes. Or were they the souls of the graves enveloping me? My heart beats were explosive and I could not slow down in case a ghost pops up from the grave. Do ghosts exist? I was not ambling alone in the cemetery to find out. I could have been murdered there too, in retrospect, since it was dead quiet but there were residences nearby as in the image.   

I do not read ghost stories or watch horror movies unlike many youngsters and so that trip running past the graves was much more memorable to an impressionable young adult.

Kindness to strangers and helping non-relatives are values many older Singaporean parents do not teach their children.  So many grow up to be selfish and thinking of how to enjoy themselves. The school education system is changing to teach values of compassion, empathy and others but how successful can the system be if parents do not play their part?

1192. Vet specialists in Singapore

Vet Specialists in Singapore

Reply to an ex-Intern in her 5^th year of study

EMAIL TO AN EX-INTERN OF TOA PAYOH VETS. SHE DID HER INTERNSHIP DURING HER JC2 YEAR Sep 20,2013 Hi I am Dr Sing from Toa Payoh Vets. I hope all are well with you. When will you be graduating? ------------------------------- · Hello Dr Sing! I haven't spoken to you in a long time! how are you? I will be starting year 5 in 2 months and will graduate by end of next year! Time has flown by so quickly! I am excited yet apprehensive at the same time! Do you have any tips for me starting rotations? :) ---------------------- Plan early n see more of the exotic places u will never travel to unless u see practice -------------------------------- haha yes we have settled our rotation schedule already and i will be going to thailand OIE for my public practice rotation which i might get to go to lao/cambodia/vietnam/malaysia too!  With your experience and expertise, do you think Singapore will be a good place for me to come back as a fresh graduate or would it be better if I work in Australia for 1-2 years before coming back to singapore to work?  Also based on Singapore's current pet industry, how important is it to do a specialist course after graduation? --------------------- Oct 14, 2013 Montreal, Canada As I seldom read Facebook messages, I am sorry for the belated reply to your msg dated Sep 21, 2013 THE VETERINARY SITUATION IN SINGAPORE IN 2014   1. More fresh graduates are coming home to less good positions and less salaries. The bigger practices want vets with experience nowadays.  2. Estimated 60 veterinary practices exist now. Good for pet owners who want proximity. Some practices close but more are opening. Should be 70 when you graduate as these practices have good financial backers. 3. A practice may have more than "10 vets' listed but many are part-timers. 4. A vet can start his own practice only after one year of working and many have strong financial back ups to start up. 5. Work in Australia for 2 years - only if you can find a top small animal practice with lots of variety of cases and surgeries and equipment like MRI. 6. Get a specialist degree in opthalmology or orthopedics as Singapore is very short of specialists, if you are passionate about this specialty. However, a specialist doing general practice work like vaccination and spays will not be respected or referred to. In any case, be prepared for little income for some time. 7. A specialist needs to start his own practice with good updated equipment. I visited Hong Kong vet practice in an upscale area. The nurse told me that she would refer a case for MRI to a certain practice with the expertise as that practice has the experts reading the scan.. In other words, owning an MRI or CT scan does not mean much if the vet has no solid experience in reading MRI scans as the feeder clinics will not refer to the vet who has such sophisticated equipment without the expertise to use and read the scans.   8. In conclusion, what is your interest and passion in small animal practice. As to being a specialist, this will take you many years preferably in the USA, before other GP vets will refer cases to you.   I hope this answers your queries. -----------------------------------  Thank you for your reply and advice, Dr Sing. It was very informative. What if I do not specialise but work 1-2 years in Australia before I go back to Singapore? Will that affect adversely on my career? Where would you suggest to be a good country (besides Australia) to work in after graduation? Because Australia is on the verge of removing Vets off the Skilled Work List which means that we might not be able to get a visa to work in Australia if they change the law, and that will take place in July next year, before I graduate. Enjoy your trip in Canada! -------------------   Oct 15, 2013 There appears to be an impending economic recession for the heartlanders in Singapore and intense competition in the private sector. Rentals and staff costs keep increasing every year as many properties are controlled by a few corporations and rich landlords, as in Hong Kong.  The 60 veterinary practices will not be spared the economics esp. the new ones. The new practices will not be employing more full-time vets paying top salaries as for lawyers. A new graduate lawyer and doctor is said to earn over $7,000/month nowadays but not for new vets with more supply than demand. Therefore, much depends on your assessment, Best place to go is USA and it is best to do a useful specialty degree and be useful to the bigger practices who need to boost their credentials.

1191. Happy tourists at Mural Walls, Quebec Heritage Site,Canada

Street photography is very difficult in tourist areas as there is high traffic of people. This is near the other Mural Walls in old Quebec.

The Cantonese-speaking group was having coffee. I noted "a thorn amongst roses",  pumpkins and flowers making a good street photograph.  Suddenly the Caucasian friends posed in front of them and I got this image fast with the Canon EOS 700D, using the P mode, autofocus, lens 18 - 135mm. This was a "happiness" photograph of close friends.

1190. Marketing techniques: A travel agency's marketing of one optional tour with incentive

Oct 14, 2013  Sheraton Hotel near the Airport  6.49 am

To attract clients with least cost to the USA and Europe, most travel agencies in Singapore practises a marketing tactic - the optional tours to places of interest. Otherwise, just hang around the area while others go.

In this case, there was an incentive. We were asked privately whether we wanted to go on a "1000 island" boat cruise. All must go or non at all. An incentive was a trip to the Montmorency Falls, the 3rd largest in Canada. Otherwise, we would just visit Place Royale and Plains of Abraham. All 36 travellers agreed to go.

Chinese tourists form a big group of travellers to Quebec.

 

1188. Adding value to your customer service - "Harvard University educated" tourist group

Oct 13, 2013

Holiday Inn Express Quebec City (Sainte-Foy) Room 201

Visited Harvard University's Admin campus. There are chairs for the group travellers to take a group photo with the buidling in the background, creating a memory of having been to "Harvard". Unfortunately my tour guide did not do this. Each tour guide has his or her personal handling of the packaged tour. I think it is an excellent idea for the Singaporean tourists who will never meet again.  This will be what I mean as adding "value" to your service. 

The Harvard Shop we visited must be the most productive as it is a small shop of around 300 sq ft, managed by one salesperson. A young Singaporean lady said that the Facebook "likes" for a 10% discount when shown in the mobile phone was not operational. For most tourists, they are older and not able to do it. This is a good marketing method using multi-media.

1187. Customer service is part of the DNA of this airline

Oct 12, 2013
Holiday Inn Boston-Bunker Hill
USA

More than 20 years have passed since I last visited the USA. My children had grown up. SIA has very strong competitors like Emirates. There is a new advertising video of the SIA girl in some tea plantations.

The culture of excellent customer service is in the DNA of this airline at the passenger level in my recenr experience of being offered eye cover on my after midnight flight from Singapore to Frankfurt without me asking for it and the recommendation of spicy tomato juice from the cabin crew. The food is much better now.  The food cabinet spilt scrambled egg as 3 trays slid out just beside my seat, making the Frankfurt-New York journey memorable. "Why don't you vaccum it off?" the American woman asked. "Why not use the broom?" I asked as the male steward used tissues to clear the spilt scrambled eggs. I put a piece ofl tissue to cover it as the cabin crew worked fast to serve brunch to other passengers.

The culture of excellent customer service is in the DNA of this airline. It is team work.