IF, like me, you have been up the Singapore Flyer, your head must be spinning over a host of things.
For starters, I have never understood why it is so named.
It cannot fly and it never will.
Close your eyes and tell me what 'flyer' conjures up in your mind; and I will bet it's not a great ferris wheel on the skyline.
Much has already been written about its wrong choice of location as it's not near any of the tourist hot spots; its admission price is high and it's not value for money, in my view.
But I don't know, for now, if anyone there has taken notice or cares enough.
I am not going to try making comparisons to the London Eye and even the Eye on Malaysia, as I believe to each his own. Maybe, some lessons can be learnt though.
Built at a staggering cost of $240million, the Flyer has been set up to be an iconic landmark, mainly for tourists.
It has notched up one million visitors in five months but fewer than half are tourists. This does not bode well for its immediate future.
To add to the gloom, the tourism board has just announced that overall visitor numbers are down.
It has since been reported that a few feng shui masters and four months of study have concluded that the direction of the cycle should be reversed.
That is now done.
After all, anything is worth a try, including, I suggest, a stronger hand in marketing to make it fly.
The mark of a good attraction is its enduring quality and its ability to make money.
One wag suggested that if all things fail, the pods can be sold off as bus shelters.
But even cynics will accept it's still early days yet for the Flyer.
So, for now, my applause for the Flyer is but a guarded three-and-a-half fingers and not a full hand. Who knows, the Flyer might well take off in time to come.
The writer is a former Singaporean marketing professional.
This article was first published in The New Paper on Sept 9, 2008.
