Halloween Horrors @ Night Safari CANCELLED
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Originally posted by FireIce:
The Night Safari has canned a Halloween event - even though 1,000 tickets have been sold - because of feedback that it has no relevance to conservation.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) has pulled the plug just two weeks before Halloween Horrors was to be held on weekends between Sept 30 and Oct 30.
On Thursday, WRS, which manages the Night Safari, said the decision was made 'because of the negative feedback received from corporations, friends of the zoo, the public and the media about the event, especially over the relevance in relation to conservation'.
Ms Isabella Loh, director and newly-installed chief executive of the group, added that it agrees with comments made by President Tony Tan Keng Yam and that 'WRS parks should have more family- bonding and wholesome activities'.
halloween IS a family activity wat
and wat does deepavali got to do with conservation then?
cow head no match horse mouth
the biggest �害者 are the students.................
looks like we've got more reason to hate TT now
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Originally posted by the Bear:
looks like we've got more reason to hate TT now
Hmmm TT ah TT...
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From what I understand the last Halloween Night was a major success and people were actually looking forward to it
In what way does it not promote bonding?
I just think someone just wanted to apple polish so they cancelled the event
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if not pop, it would not have sold so many tix. I'm sure they do oredi know deepavali is in Oct so y decide so last min? if I wanna family-bond during deepavali, I would be going little india not zoo. new chief gt agenda?
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Will have to agree with everyone here.
It may be true that Halloween has nothing to do with conservation. But with no disrespect to Hindus, I'm not sure how they're going to put Deepavali within that framework.
After all, going to the Night Safari during Halloween in my opinion does count as (I quote the WRS director) 'family bonding and wholesome activities'. Dollars to donuts say that half of those tickets were sold to families who actually want to go for an outing there.
I don't know what got into the heads of the people who made this sudden decision, really.
As much as I may write off this whole 'Halloween Horrors' thing as a marketing gimmick, I am the first to admit that it was a really good gimmick, and they're just shooting themselves in the foot with this decision.
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Halloween should not be used as a marketing gimmick in future.
Want horror, use "house of horror" etc as theme.
I disapprove of Halloween as gimmick. It is alien to Singapore.
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i feel its just another themed outing for families and friends to get together, in tune with the festival.
those who really missed the halloween theme and is really in to getting spooked should join this type of outing
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Wildlife Reserves Singapore apologises to the President
Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) CEO Isabella Loh has apologised to President Tony Tan for linking his comments made during a Mid-Autumn Festival celebration to the decision to cancel its popular Halloween event. In the statement, Ms Loh said: 'I would like to re- emphasise that President had nothing to do with Wildlife Reserves Singapore decision to cancel Halloween Horrors. I would like to apologise for bringing in his comments from the Mid Autumn Festival 'Moon Night' celebrations into this issue.'
'The decision to review and reset the calendar of events was discussed and decided even before Moon Night. The decision to cancel Halloween Horrors is not due to any religious beliefs but in response to negative feedback Friends of the Zoo and Corporate Partners,' she added.
The plug on the award-winning Halloween Horrors event was abruptly pulled last Tuesday, even though 1,000 tickets had been sold. In earlier media statements, Ms Loh said that 'WRS agrees with 'the earlier comments made by the President that going forward, WRS parks should have more family-bonding and wholesome activities.'
She was referring to a comment made by Dr Tan during a Mid-Autumn Festival event at the Singapore Zoo last Sunday. 'Such family bonding, I believe, is very important for Singapore because we need to create informal occasions where families, children can bond with their parents and grandparents. It is the best way of building a sense of unity and comfort within the family,' he said.
-- ST
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Hah! All of you TT detractors!
On a side note, why negative feedback after 1k tickets sold. Don't like, don't go lah, aiyo, visit the Zoo and go play in the kids pool instead of Night Safari.
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Halloween not scary lah ! IN REAL LIFE, HUMAN BEINGS are MORE SCARY at times !
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no lah, human beings not that scary, just a pain in tthe ass only
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Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
no lah, human beings not that scary, just a pain in tthe ass only
diam diam lah, ah neh neh -
Nathan also never use zoo to celebrate deepavali, why TT want to celebrate deepavali ar???
The president belong to 35% of singapore people only, the WRS management must know that they may loose the rest 65% going there, who knows, they may Ban night safari altogether.
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ya. the animals wanna sleep in peace!
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their or rather some personalities' logic defies me
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Halloween is a festival with no significance in our society. It is pure western influence. Hence it holds no relevance being in a zoo whatsoever. As much as people wish it wasn't canned, it should be made known that it should not even have existed to begin with.
I reckon kids here don't have a clue what halloween is all about and why it is celebrated, and to have something like that at a zoo further reinforces that. Zoo, safari, whatever.
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Please leave the PIW out of the equation.
The newly appointed CEO is just trying to create an impression and remove what is unnecessary from the old practise.
She is just quoting PIW to add weight to the cancellation.
Please be rational about the issue and not to make it another memoir material when PIW retires.
Some one is not contented just selling prata after retirement, still want to rake more money.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
diam diam lah, ah neh neh
i never make any noise why, only my hand cannot stop typing. you can write ah neh - you must be typical sg lian working at joo chiat chiatlearnt o appreciate lah
cat also can watch MTV 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEcGyv8d5Gw
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I can understand why this was cancelled.
firstly, the new chief was from some environmental and conservation thingy.
secondly, the organisation was drifting away from its mission on educating the public on wildlife conservation. this is understandable as the previous chief had wanted to the organisation to achieve financial sustainability, instead of getting subsidised by govt funding, and position it to be another SIA.
I went for a few of their halloween thingy in the first few years and stopped going a couple of years back, cuz I found the activities so-so. In fact, I have never intended to go this year. Hence, I didn't bother to know they have already started selling tickets.
the cancellation got nothing to do with TT la. his comments got so power meh? hahaha
I just hope the new management can bring back the soul of the zoo. I miss the zoo that was under Bernard Harrison, before the fast food people took over. While the papers claimed that the halloween thingy was the brainchild of the last chief, the open zoo concept and night safari were the brainchild of Harrison.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
Halloween is a western holiday with occult roots.
This holiday is an alien import from the west. I disapprove of night safari organising this event. They want horror as theme they can use "House of Horror".
So you'd rather see a 'Ten Courts of Hell' event?
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who knows maybe the cancellation stemmed from a monetary and profitary point of view ?
how come no one speculate that it could be the Deepavali event sponsors more $$$ compared to the Halloween ones and the reasons given are all but smoke-screen to divert our attention?
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Originally posted by Honeybunz:
the cancellation got nothing to do with TT la. his comments got so power meh? hahaha
I just hope the new management can bring back the soul of the zoo. I miss the zoo that was under Bernard Harrison, before the fast food people took over. While the papers claimed that the halloween thingy was the brainchild of the last chief, the open zoo concept and night safari were the brainchild of Harrison.
The cageless zoo concept originated with San Diego Zoo, but the nocturnal zoo idea is completely local.
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today's ST was still reporting on the cancellation. publicity? LOL
anyway, the reporters are still interviewing Bernard Harrison for his comments. I guess he can never be replaced.
one of the bloggers who dunno him commented that he "seemed to be someone genuinely passionate about the animals." Not seemed. He IS genuinely passionate about the animals.
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Originally posted by Kuali Baba:
The cageless zoo concept originated with San Diego Zoo, but the nocturnal zoo idea is completely local.
oh mannnnI so wan to look see San Diego zoo. Swang by a couple of times while traveling to US, never been able to make it there :(
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Staff split over decision to cancel event
THE sudden cancellation of the Night Safari's Halloween event has not only caused an uproar among members of the public, but has also brought to the fore an apparent divide among the company's employees.
Sources familiar with Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), the parent company of the Night Safari, told The Straits Times that some staff were already uncomfortable with the style of new chief executive Isabella Loh, who came on board in July.
When she decided to can Halloween Horrors last week, just two weeks before its Sept 30 launch, the divide became more obvious as they disagreed not only with the cancellation, but also with how she handled it and comments she made over the past week.
They said that initially, Ms Loh had wanted to cancel the event only next year. It is unclear why the plug was eventually pulled on this year's event.
Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said some of the staff tried to get Ms Loh to change her mind.
They told her it would not make sense to cancel the event as close to $1 million had been spent to organise it. This included the cost of themed food supplies, retail items and decorations.
They argued that the event - launched in 2006 by then chief executive Fanny Lai, who was replaced by Ms Loh - was a signature event for the park.
The 2009 instalment also won an award for Most Innovative Marketing Initiative at the Singapore Experience Awards last year.
Organised by the Singapore Tourism Board, the awards recognise organisations and individuals which have designed memorable experiences for their customers.
On the involvement of 17 Singapore Polytechnic students who had helped organise the event as part of their final-year project, Ms Loh said on Saturday that she was 'not informed about the contract for grading the... students' work'.
However, The Straits Times understands that a media release which mentioned the collaboration had been sent out.
Last Tuesday, WRS said it was cancelling Halloween Horrors, which was to have run on five weekends until Oct 30, although 1,000 tickets had been sold. Tickets had cost between $40 and $56 for adults.
Ms Loh, 51, said this was 'because of negative feedback from corporations, friends of the zoo, the public and the media, especially over the event's relevance in relation to conservation'.
She added that, going forward, WRS' three parks - it also runs the Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park - will have more family-centric activities.
She also said at first that she agreed with comments made by President Tony Tan Keng Yam, when he visited the zoo on Sept 11, that it was important for Singapore to have family bonding activities.
On Saturday, she apologised to the President for linking his comments to the cancellation of the Halloween event, and stressed that he had nothing to do with the decision.
She also clarified that the cancellation was not due to religious reasons, although she admitted that she made references to 'devil worship' when members of her team asked her why the event did not fit the family theme.
She said she had visited the event's Haunted House on Monday and 'got upset' after that as she was 'uncomfortable with the idea because it was too scary'.
'I explained in an e-mail that that is a lot of money spent on an infrastructure (Haunted House) of devil worship,' she said.
According to sources, Ms Loh said she had heard that 'zebra heads were chopped off as a scare tactic' as part of Halloween Horrors.
Employees told her this was definitely not the case.
WRS is a private company set up in 2000.
It is chaired by Ms Claire Chiang, a former Nominated Member of Parliament who is also senior vice-president of hospitality chain Banyan Tree Holdings. Efforts to get Ms Chiang's comments on the matter since last Friday have been unsuccessful.
Besides Ms Chiang and Ms Loh, WRS has five other board directors: Mr Chia Ngiang Hong, Ms Aw Kah Peng, Mr Raymundo Yu, Mr Philip Tan Yuen Fah and Mr Nihal Kaviratne.
Three of them were contacted, but they declined to comment.
Internet postings slam decision
The WRS Facebook account yesterday continued to see postings slamming the decision as well as some calling for a boycott of its parks.
Some wanted to know how many people had complained about the event.
Others asked what WRS would be doing to 'repay' the polytechnic students' months of work on the project.
Yet others felt that if WRS was against the event, it should just allow this year's event to go on, but not have it from next year.
There were also criticisms of Ms Loh, and a notice from WRS was put up on the site urging users to 'please be civil and refrain from making baseless accusations or personal attacks on anyone'.
A user, known as Worldtrotter Angel, said he would 'boycott' WRS.
Another post, by a Katherine Kang, applauded the decision to can the event as she felt Halloween 'has no correlation to the Night Safari theme'. But she acknowledged that there were people who were looking forward to it.
Said another post, by Glenn Goh: 'I feel that the best decision would be to let the event go ahead as planned, but inform everyone that it would be the final year. Not only would WRS be able to shift their focus, but they could also reinstate their reputation, increase ticket sales, and not let the costs and efforts go to waste.'
Meanwhile, it is understood that props related to the event have been taken down