新加坡人，你热情吗？

When I am in another country, I am appreciative to those who came forward to help when I was in doubt, even if I did not approach them. Usually, they would be very willing to help us and even went an extra mile, for example, bringing me to the destination when I had only asked for directions. Sometimes, it’s the warmth of the locals that make the trip a more pleasant one. Similarly, when tourists in Singapore are in doubt, do we, locals, extend a helping hand to them?

I was at the bus stop in front of Lucky Plaza on Wednesday night when I saw a Westerner approached 2 local men, dressed in office attire, for advice on the bus to take. The 2 young men looked quite bemused. One of them just pointed to the board with the bus routes and requested the tourist to refer to it. Hmm… I guess what they did was not wrong, but I doubt the tourist, unfamiliar with the roads here, would be able to figure out the service he would have to take easily. In the end, he asked the bus driver which bus he should board. If Singapore wants to become a truly tourism hub, is this the way we should “welcome” our tourists? Tourism is not only about the hardware facilities, but the “software” as well, though I think that our hardware already cannot quite make it (not much quality attractions and not-that-user friendly public transport for tourists). And it’s not about only tourists actually. Even when local Singaporeans on the road require help, do we help them or do we just ignore them? If it’s within our means and their requests are not too over, why not extend a helping hand? Perhaps, I am asking too much. Or perhaps, what I saw was an exception rather than the norm. Or maybe, what I encountered overseas was the exception rather than the norm…