National Museum of Singapore, Attractions Management, Ryan Chan
Overview
National Museum of Singapore has a history dating back all the way to 1887, being the country’s oldest museum with a progressive mind. Do not be fooled by their 19th-century colonial exterior as the National Museum of Singapore uses cutting-edge technology to present the nation’s legacy and development. The galleries highlight fresh perspectives of Singapore Story as they take us on an immersive voyage, one where creative storytelling redefines the conventional museum experience.
The National Museum of Singapore is a cultural and architectural landmark in Singapore, it hosts fresh activities and events all year round. These popular, well-loved events are Night Festival, visually arresting art installations as well as performances and films screenings of different styles and genres. Not only that, but we will also be able to find a wide range of facilities and services such as a resource centre which has a growing collection of about 15,000 publications related to cultural studies, design and Singapore’s history
Offerings, Programmes, Special Events
Some of the offerings that National Museum of Singapore has is their facilities where they have different types of dining options and a retail outlet outside the Singapore History Gallery for visitors to purchase souvenirs related to the Singapore culture.
National Museum of Singapore has many offerings ranging from families to additional needs. Some of the offerings are Family Fun, Singapore Rhapsodies at National Museum, In an Instant: Polaroid.
Under Family Fun it has programmes to cater from the young to the old. Such as for the kids, Children’s Season, Workshops, Storytelling sessions and National Day Open House.
Some of the special events that are currently in or has been done are ‘In An Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology’ which starts from 10 November to 31 March 2019. One of the most recent and notable events from National Museum of Singapore would be the World Press Photo Singapore as this exhibition is hailed as the ‘Oscars’ of photojournalism which lasted from 6 October 2018 to 28 October. There is also some other notable exhibition is ‘GOLD FROM THE NEW WORLD’ which is photographs collections from the Gold Museum in Bogota, Colombia and local exhibition such as ‘The More We Get Together’ which is a collaboration with Housing Board Development to showcase the past playgrounds and looking at how the future playgrounds may look like. 
Pricing and pricing structures
As for pricing, the majority of the programmes and exhibitions does not require Singaporeans or Permanent Residents to pay as, since 2013, National Museum of Singapore has made it free for them to go however, there are still some exhibitions/programmes that still requires admission fee despite being a Singaporean or Permanent Resident. Such as their on-going exhibition ‘In An Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology’, their tickets costs $12.50 for adults and are free for seniors and students. As for visitors, it costs $14 for students and seniors and $18 for adults. They also have 2 difference packages for visitors for adults and concession which allows them to have access to all galleries and exhibition which costs $26 and $19 respectively. Not only that National Museum of Singapore has promotions for OCBC FRANK Cardmembers which costs Singaporeans and Permanent Residents $10 and visitors $14. Ticket holders of Singapore International Photography Festival also can have the same privilege as those who have OCBC FRANK Card with the tickets to ‘In An Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology’ costing the same.
Marketing
National Museum of Singapore uses direct marketing, social media marketing. For direct marketing, National Museum of Singapore’s events and programmes are widely promoted on Singapore’s newspaper such as the StraitsTimes. Not only that, the National Museum of Singapore has social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram where the majority of the youths and young adults are using. With this method, it can reach the market that they want to target and promote the event as well on these social media platforms. They also have brochures at the place itself where people can share among their friends who are interested
Overall Appeal
I was very surprised by the overall appeal of each attraction as I did not expect it to be the way it is being presented. For example, the exhibition on Singapore History, there were phones placed around the exhibition which allows us, visitors, to pick it up and hear about the conversation they are having or explain what the exhibits are. 
Another one of the exhibitions that I was surprised was ‘Story of the Forest’ as it uses digital presentation to showcase the exhibits about flora and fauna. This is something that I did not expect when I went into the exhibit as I always had this mindset of National Museum being old and outdated hence, I did not expect them to incorporate digital presentation into their exhibits which is not only interactive it is also very innovative.
Areas, Services, Features
Some of the services that have well presented are examples like their Food and Beverage facilities where they have different types of restaurant or cafes that cater to different type of people from different income group and taste. For example, at the National Museum of Singapore, they have three different types of restaurant, Flutes, Food for Thought and Janice Wong Singapore. Each of these restaurants caters to different to people, as Flutes it caters to higher income groups who likes fine dining and wine drinking and appreciation of their restaurant decorations. As for Food for Thought, it caters to young and old, with their dishes inspired by the museum stories from the galleries. Lastly, Janice Wong Singapore, which a café with handcrafted coffee and tea by Singapore’s famous pastry chef Janice Wong. All these three food dining choices can cater
to different types of people income group and taste buds.
The features that I feel is well presented is that the National Museum of Singapore is very accessible where there are escalators to all the floors and lifts at every level in case if any handicapped people were to visit the museum. It is also located near 2 MRT stations which are within 5 minutes walking distance of the museum from Bencoolen and Dhoby Ghuat.
Visitor Engagement
Interactive technology which includes items that visitors can pick up from the exhibits to learn more about exhibits or listen to the story being told by the person. As now not everyone likes to read long chunks of information, this is something done well by the museum as it is able to capture the visitor’s attention by making them listen to the story and learning more about the exhibit. In National Museum of Singapore, there is also a remake of Jurong’s drive-in movie from the past which plays old movies.
There is also a sitting area in (exhibit) where it showed a video of our late Lee Kuan Yew talking and how he built Singapore, this can educate the younger generation of what he had done to make Singapore it is today.
Most excited and disappointed
The two exhibitions that I was most excited was Singapore History Gallery and Story of the Forest as mentioned earlier the Singapore History Gallery was filled with loads of information that I did not know about Singapore’s history. The exhibition was down to every detail where even the cut-out board of Lee Kuan Yew was done to match his height in real life.
The Story of Forest was another one that excited me the most as I did not expect a museum to have this type of exhibit using digital media to explain the story. As I always thought museums are boring with their lengthy information to read from, this exhibition was an eye-opener for me and how it changed my opinions about the museum as they are now adopting a new and more advanced method to attract new visitors into the target audience.
There was only one exhibition that disappointed me was Modern Colony. As the exhibitions were set in 1920s-1930s with the influence from British and Europe on people, ideas and goods. Majority of the exhibits were about clothing from the time of what the men and women wore in the past.
However, despite being disappointed by that the other two exhibitions really impressed me as I did not expect that.
Pre Visit, During Visit, Post Visit
Pre-visit
During the pre-visit stage, National Museum of Singapore uses their website to showcase the different types of exhibitions and programmes that they are offering to the visitors. There is also advertisement on their exhibitions done by local news outlet such as The Straits Time with have featured many of past National Museum of Singapore exhibitions.
During Visit
As for the during visit stage, there are brochures to be taken from the counter which tells us about what is going on currently in the museum and a guide for the museum, this is a form of direct marketing where visitors who go to the museum for a trip would take a brochure with them to navigate where to go and what is going on. There is also a free guided tour service where the guides can explain to the visitors on what the exhibitions are about.
Post visits
As for this stage, National Museum of Singapore uses social media such as Instagram to have visitor engagement. For example, on their Instagram account, they have a dedicated hashtag #nationalmuseumofsingapore which allows visitors who have been there to use this hashtag when they post something on their Instagram account which allows National Museum of Singapore employees by reposting them on their own social media accounts. This is a type of guerrilla marketing where using the impact of social media to attract a new amount of audience to visit the museum.
References
Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/
Our Exhibitions. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-exhibitions/exhibition-list
Our Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-programmes/programmes-list
Retail And Dining. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/retail-and-dinning/retail-and-dining-listHome. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/
Our Exhibitions. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-exhibitions/exhibition-list
Our Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-programmes/programmes-list
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