It’s all systems go for F1-trackside hotels

SINGAPORE — The worsening haze situation in the Republic may have cast a pall over this week’s Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix, but a check with hotels in the Marina Bay circuit vicinity showed that the poor air quality has not affected business over the race weekend.

The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) level hit the “very unhealthy” range of 249 – the highest reading to date this year – tonight (Sept 14), and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) said today that a decision on whether it would be safe to race would be made after consulting with drivers and teams.

Despite the gloom caused by the haze, hotels in the race vicinity told TODAY that they are close to full occupancy for the weekend.

“The hotel is booked close to capacity and we anticipate running full over the race weekend,” said Andreas Kohn, Director of Sales & Marketing, The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. “The booking pace this year is on par with the same time last year and we are still receiving enquiries.”

Ng Sok Hia, Executive Assistant Manager of Sales & Marketing for Swissôtel The Stamford said that reservations were currently at over 80 per cent, with the hotel expected to hit full occupancy due to “an incremental pick-up of last minute booking.

“With the exciting build up to the night race this weekend, and the world-class entertainment acts taking place, it is unlikely that the haze situation will dampen the spirits of our guests,” said Ng. “Room reservations over the race weekend are unaffected. However, we will most definitely take into consideration any advice or guidelines set by the National Environment Agency, should the conditions change.”

While the Marina Mandarin Singapore expects to be fully booked by the time race weekend comes around, Patricia Yong, director of marketing communications for the hotel, admitted that the haze could make it hard to predict if tourists would still travel to the Republic for the Singapore Grand Prix.

“Due to the haze situation of late, it is hard to say whether it would actually be fully booked by this weekend,” said Yong. “However, we are not too worried, because based on the past years’ experience when the F1 race was also shrouded in haze, it did not have any adverse impact in our hotel bookings.

“Fans know that attending F1 race in itself carries with it the risk of bad weather, be it of rainy weather, or haze and are prepared for that.”

While it may be business as usual for hotels near the Marina Bay circuit, some merchants in Marina Square Shopping Mall are expecting a downturn in customers during the Singapore Grand Prix.

Many of the shops have already been hit hard by the ongoing renovations at the mall, and with road closures from the F1 race set to restrict traffic flow into the area, shop owners TODAY spoke to are bracing themselves for another quiet weekend.

A salesperson from African Jamaican store, Rastafari, who declined to be named, said: “There’s nothing we can do about this because it’s a yearly event. So we’ll keep a positive mindset, and probably just continue our SG50 promotion throughout this weekend in order to try and boost our business a little.”

However, one merchant is hoping to leverage on the race to help boost sales during the weekend. “From past experience, our business over the F1 weekend will drop by about 30%,” said Tina Zhang, a store supervisor at Action City. “But we found out last year that our portable fans sell particularly well during the F1 period, probably because spectators feel warm watching the race. So we’ll try to push the sales of our portable fans this year.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ADELENE WONG