When she is not knee-deep micro-philosophising, Angeline enjoys travelling, looking out for the latest tech, visiting museums and galleries, watching documentaries, reading biographies and people watching. She also enjoys intellectual and philosophical discussions to understand and learn from different perspectives. Once a while, she indulges in binge-watching drama series (alone; so that no one will ask questions). But her real super ability is sleeping for a long, long time without waking. Her record? 20 hours!

Angeline has a Master of Education (Human Development & Psychology) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies from Harvard University.

Would You Visit a City for Nine Days? (I'm Not Talking About Paris)

Would You Visit a City for Nine Days? (I'm Not Talking About Paris)

Angeline Tong
Life Musings

Recently, I saw a statistic that gave me a very pleasant surprise. As of January 2018, only 8.7 percent of the Chinese population hold passports. Yet Chinese tourists are already the world’s biggest spenders!

 

It’s no wonder tourism boards around the world are thinking hard about how to make their respective countries or cities the destination of choice to Chinese tourists. The city of Dubai seems to be doing particularly well in this respect. It has announced partnerships with Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei and Ctrip to push information digitally to Chinese tourists. Dubai is also one of the first cities to participate in WeChat’s CityExperience programme.

 

All these efforts are seeing results. According to Dubai Tourism, Chinese visitors to Dubai have increased by 110 percent. They stay an average of nine days and most choose to visit in January. Of the total number of Chinese tourists to the UAE, Dubai takes the lion’s share at 91 percent.

 

Dubai, for me, is first a business city and then a tourist attraction. But I am now tempted to visit the city for leisure. What is it that makes tourists want to stay for nine days?

 

Well, for starters, perhaps a stop at one of the biggest shopping malls in the world? 😊

Angeline Tong is an architect of narratives and Chief Curator at HOL, an experience strategy and curation consultancy. Angeline has a Master of Education (Human Development & Psychology) from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from Harvard University. She currently resides in Singapore.

To contact Angeline, email atong@hol.sg

Exams or No Exams?

Exams or No Exams?
Some Things Just Cannot Be Replaced

Some Things Just Cannot Be Replaced