Classification of Changi Chapel museum's visitor market
At Changi Chapel museum, I identified that the age of visitors visiting the
museum are from as young as seven years old to people of the fifties. Visitor
of all age range can come to the museum to educate themselves with the history
of Singapore and learn how the fore fathers of Singapore have led a hard life
for Singapore to be who we are today.
As the museum is an attraction without accommodation,
it targets day visitors.
Most of the visitors of the museum are usually
foreigners from the American countries like from the United Kingdom, New
Zealand and Australia.
From my observation at the museum, I notice that most
of the visitors are people from the Generation X (early 1960s to early 1980s)
also there are some visitors from the Generation Z (mid 2000 to present).
The museum can be easily accessed as transportation to
and fro the museum is located just outside the museum, visitors can take bus 2
to and from Tanah Merah MRT station.
From my interview from the counter in-charge, I was
told that visitors would usually visit the museums on weekends, as most of
their visitors were tourist and families with children. Families with children
would visit the museums on weekends as there is no school on the weekends for
the children.
The visitor’s personality of the museum should revolve
around people who are keen in learning and have interest in the history of
Singapore.
I have identified some of the motivating factors of
the Changi Chapel Museum that will make people want to visit Changi Chapel museum.
Firstly, education can be a motivating factor for the
museum as it can allow visitor to learn about how our forefathers fought for
the war, tortured during their years of captivity and eventually lived through
the war. Thus visitors might be motivated to learn what happen throughout the
war period.
Secondly, the museum is important because it records
what happens to Singapore in World War II therefore Changi Chapel holds
historic significance to Singapore and this would motivate tourist and even
locals to visit the museum.
Thirdly, by visiting the Changi Chapel museum it can
provide us with a creative and novelty experience for their visitors unlike visiting
other attractions as visitors can have a feel of how Prisoners of War (POWs)
led their lives during the war with the aid of the life artifacts, thus being a
motivating factor for the museum.
Fourthly, as mentioned previously there are life
artifacts obtain and well preserved after the war, some examples of the
artifacts include the wall, door from the actual Changi prison from the war, a
life plan of the prison cell of the POWs in Changi prison and the replica of
the church at the period of war time for people of the war time to find comfort
in.
And lastly, the last motivating factor is that the
museum is located at a very accessible area, visitors can take a MRT ride to
Tanah Merah station and change to take bus 2, with a 15 minutes bus ride to
Changi Chapel museum. Also, Changi
Chapel museum is located very near to Changi village hotel, therefore tourist
staying in the hotel can make their way to museum within 10minutes.
Unique nature of Changi Chapel museum & challenges of the museum
Changi Chapel Museum is unique as it includes tangible
elements such as the artifacts, audio systems, replica of the chapel and computerized
interactive system for visitors to use in the museum, intangible elements like
the vintage atmosphere, education and the feeling of nostalgia.
During my visit there I noticed that the servers at
the counter of the museum and the souvenir shop was very helpful and attentive
to the needs of the visitors, as she would carefully explained each step on how
to operate the audio systems, explain how should I travel about the museum with
the audio and would ask if I needed help to get to which part of the museum.
As everyone has different perspective, each visitor
will bring back the same knowledge but different thoughts and understanding of
the knowledge they obtain, therefore the products receive by the visitors are
unique.
However, with all its unique features there are
several challenges faced by the museum.
A way that Changi Chapel museum earn its revenue is
through rental of their audio tour, however this product is perishable as the
remaining unsold audio tour cannot be stored to sell again the next day. Also visitors
are also unable to inspect the audio tour before purchasing the audio tour thus
visitor may not purchase the audio tour.
The unique core products of Changi Chapel museum are
to understand the lives of the POWs during World War II, experiencing the
vintage and past of Singapore.
The unique tangible products of the museum are the
souvenir sold at the souvenir shop; some examples of the souvenirs are the
certificate that Japanese has sign in release of the Singapore, Japanese newspaper
from the war and bibliography by survivors of the war and the artifacts and the
construction of the museum which will help to deliver core products to the visitors.
Lastly, the unique augmented product of the museum is
the restaurant outside the museum which allows visitors to dine in.
Reason why Changi Chapel museum is highly ranked on tripadvisor
Changi Chapel museum is highly ranked on trip advisor
because it has met the needs of the visitors; here are some of the needs that I
have identified that Changi Chapel museum has met.
The first need of the visitors is to educate themselves
with knowledge about history of Singapore. Changi Chapel museum has set up
audio tour packages for visitors to have a better learning experience by
themselves. The audio tour cost $8 for each adult, $6 for each adult who are
sharing the audio system, $4 for each child and $3 for each child who are
sharing the audio system. The audio tour
is split into different tracks at each part of the museum (the map of shows
each track for each exhibit in the museum) also the audio tour includes
interviews from the survivors of the war and also families of ex POWs, which
provide a very close and real experience for the visitors of the museum.
The second need of the visitors is to experience the life
of how the POWs led during the war period, with the remains of the war,
visitors can experience the lifestyles of the people in the war through
sketchbooks to necessities like blankets, cigarette case, letter opener,
coconut ash tray to the iron pike from the Burma railway. According to many
reviews on trip advisor, many of the visitors felt that the museum presented
World War II informatively, extremely interesting and was a moving experience
for them.
Changi Chapel museum is highly ranked because of its
determinants.
Changi Chapel museum is highly ranked on trip advisor
as it is free admission for all public to visit, therefore people will not have
to worry about the cost of the visit.
Impacts of the attraction
Changi Chapel museum is dedicated to all those who
suffered during World War II, this makes Changi Chapel museum a place for families
of ex POWs to remember them, there is a bulletin board located at the chapel in
the center of the museum for people to write message to the people who sacrificed
their lives in the war, thus this is one of the socio-cultural impact that
Changi Chapel museum has.
As Changi Chapel museum is categorized under the
ownership of public sector, its main focus is not on profit, also as Changi
Chapel museum does not charge admission fees to its visitors and only earn
minimal profit from the gift store, audio tours, rental of the chapel courtyard
and wedding services thus it generally does not contribute much to the economy
of Singapore.
In addition, with its minimal revenue it is expensive
to maintain as the utilities and maintaining the artifacts cost more than the
revenue of the museum. Therefore the Changi Chapel museum impacts negatively on
the economy of Singapore.
As the museum is an attraction that does not require
much labour to function, the museum does not provide jobs for people to work
thus it does not contribute much to the economy of Singapore.
In order to display some of the artifacts in the museum, many of the artifacts were remove from the actual location of the historic site; some examples are the door, concrete wall from the actual Changi prison cell and the iron pike belonging to the Burma Thai railway. These artifacts which were removed created damage to the heritage site which led to a negative
environmental impact.
