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- Sentosa Island’s dark past includes pirates, malaria, a prisoner of war camp, and mass executions during WWII.
- It almost became an oil refinery before the Singaporean government decided to turn it into a tourist destination.
- Since then it’s become famous for its lush forest, beaches, hotels, theme parks, and golf courses.
Sentosa Island, a luxurious tourist destination just off Singapore, almost never happened.
After a dark and brutal past involving pirates, malaria, a prisoner of war camp, and mass executions, the island — formerly called Pulau Blakang Mati,” or “the island behind which lies death” — almost became an Esso oil refinery.
The government had already agreed with the oil company when a few concerned individuals proposed another idea — why not turn it into a popular tourist destination like Disneyland?
Here’s how it got to be the way it is today.
About a mile off Singapore, you’ll find Sentosa Island, a 500-hectare island shaped like the end of a tobacco pipe.
From above, it looks like a beach-lined Disneyland bordered by forest.
Sources: National Geographic, BBC, CNN
But the island has a dark history. Up until about 50 years ago, it was known as “Pulau Blakang Mati,” which translates to “the island behind which lies death.”
In the 19th century, it was a regular hiding spot for pirates, and some experts believe its name refers to an area where they buried their dead.
Around this period, the island’s small population was also decimated by what was thought to be malaria.
Sources: National Geographic, CNN
In the late 19th century, while Singapore was under British control, its forces built five coastal forts across the island, including Fort Siloso on a hilltop.
In 1942, they fought the Japanese from these forts.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, BBC, National Geographic, CNN
When the British lost, the Japanese converted the fort into a prisoner-of-war camp for Australian and British soldiers.
The other forts fell into disrepair.
One is now used by hikers as a lookout spot and another, according to CNN, is popular with fans of “ruin porn.”
Sources: Los Angeles Times, BBC, National Geographic, CNN
The Japanese also killed thousands of Chinese men in mass executions on one of Sentosa’s beaches, which was later converted into the Serapong golf course.
In 1965, Singapore was granted independence. Towards the end of the 1960s, its new government agreed to let Esso build an oil refinery on the island.
The plan was to expand it into a petrochemical tank farm.
Sources: Channel News Asia, Time
Some people were resistant to the idea of turning the lush island into a refinery.
Alan Choe, a housing and development architect, was asked to think up convincing alternatives.
He didn’t have much to go on, except the fact the island had been the city’s “green lung.”
Source: Channel News Asia
In 1967, he wrote a paper that convinced authorities that the island needed to remain a “green lung” and that it could be converted into a tourist destination. Choe’s inspiration was Disneyland.
Source: Channel News Asia
The government agreed to move the refinery to another island and announced plans in 1969 to create a “South Sea Island paradise,” in its place.
Source: Channel News Asia
In 1972, the island was renamed “Sentosa,” which means “peace and tranquility.” This was the winning entry in a public competition held to rename the island.
The Singaporean government also formed the Sentosa Development Corporation.
It had big plans for the island, but it wasn’t easy.
“It’s always been a military island. When we took over, there was no money, no causeway,” Choe told Channel News Asia. “So, we started by adapting a lot of the old buildings used by the British for military garrisons.”
Sources: National Geographic, Straits Times, CNN
In 1974, Sentosa’s popularity grew with the opening of the Sentosa Golf Club. It was immediately popular despite charging expensive fees.
Source: Channel News Asia
SDC also launched cable carts that linked the island to the mainland. It was touted as the first of its kind to go across an entire harbor.
In 1979, about 850,000 people visited the island, but it still wasn’t a hot spot for investment.
Companies complained about insufficient infrastructure and the poor condition of facilities.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Channel News Asia
In 1983, Sentosa’s development stalled after an oil vessel hit the cable cart line. The accident caused two carts to fall into the sea, killing seven people and trapping 13 others.
It was a disaster and the island experienced an immediate slump in visitors and business interest.
To get things moving again, it took tax incentives as well as unique land purchasing rules where developers could pay for part of the land and pay off the rest using their earnings once their developments were up and running.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Channel News Asia
Still, progress remained slow. As recently as 1989, the island had no proper luxury hotels, just a few youth hostels. But the island became more accessible in 1992 when the Sentosa Causeway opened.
Source: CNN
During the 1990s, the SDC focused on getting more hotels to open in Sentosa by investing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sources: South China Morning Post, Channel News Asia
But the island’s popularity was already waning. Christopher Khoo, a tourist consultant said Sentosa “evoked the feeling of old or stale attractions.”
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Channel News Asia
Theme parks and attractions opened and closed, including “Volcano Land” and the water park “Fantasy Land,” where two people died. Asia’s largest underwater aquarium “Underwater World,” which opened in 1991, lasted longer than the others, but it also closed down in 2016.
Sources: Channel News Asia, CNN
In 1995, the island unveiled Singapore’s largest Merlion, a mythological guardian for the city that is half fish and half lion. It’s 121 feet high and cost $8 million to build.
“We built it very tall; people could take a lift up to the top, and we made its eyes like radar lights, flashing all over with smoke coming out and sound roaring out,” Choe told Channel News Asia.
Sources: Straits Times, Los Angeles Times
In 2002, the Singaporean government invested $3 billion into the island to rejuvenate it, including a $20 million investment to upgrade Palawan Beach and the refurbishment of Fort Siloso.
Sources: Time, Channel News Asia
Sentosa Cove — one of the island’s key developments — was launched in 2003. Based at the tip of the eastern edge of the island, it’s where some of Singapore’s richest citizens live.
The 117-hectare gated community with 2,600 homes is the only place in Singapore where a non-resident can purchase land, but it doesn’t come cheap.
Houses between 7,000 and 10,000 square feet sold for up to $10 million. In 2022, one sold for $16 million.
Sales from the elite community brought in hundreds of millions of dollars.
“The idea was for the rich to park the car in the front and the yacht behind,” Choe told Channel News Asia.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Channel News Asia
According to the Los Angeles Times, the island has “one foot in fantasy land and one foot in a future in which Singapore embraces, well Southern California, with a gated community of luxury homes and a yacht marina.”
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Channel News Asia, CNN
New hotels also began to open in the 2000s, including the Capella Singapore, the W Singapore, and Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa.
Sources: Straits Times, Channel News Asia, CNN
New attractions were built as well, including skydiving and a surf simulator.
Sources: Straits Times, Channel News Asia, CNN
But it was in 2010 that Sentosa reached the peak of its evolution when Resorts World Sentosa opened, according to Time. This was the first Universal Studios theme park in Southeast Asia.
It was also the location for Singapore’s first casino.
The resort was so large it reclaimed about seven hectares of watery coastline.
People often assume Sentosa Island is manmade. That’s not true but, according to CNN, it has grown about 220 hectares since 1972.
Sources: Time, Channel News Asia, CNN
RWS had an immediate impact. From 2010 to 2011, the number of visitors to Sentosa rose from 7.8 million to 19.1 million. And visitor numbers continued to grow every year by almost 20% until the pandemic.
Sources: Time, Channel News Asia
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted tourism to grind to a halt, but visitors to Sentosa are once again steadily rising.
Sources: Time, Channel News Asia
Despite all of the development, Sentosa still acts as a “green lung” for Singapore. It has an estimated 55,000 trees and 45 hectares of secondary forest covering the island, according to a government agency report from 2011.
Source: PSD
Singapore’s government has also imposed restrictions to ensure the island remains 60% forest and untouched space.
For instance, Shangri-La Rasa resort is nestled among trees and had to design its driveway around Singapore’s reportedly oldest tree, an Angsana.
Source: PSD
In 2018, Sentosa made headlines when former President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the island for a historic summit where Kim Jong Un pledged to disarm his nuclear weapons.
As for the future, the government is planning on connecting Sentosa to a nearby island called Palau Brani to create an even more impressive tourist destination over the next 20 years.
While the pandemic delayed its plans, Sentosa will surely become an even larger, more decadent island destination before too long.
Sources: CNN, Business Times
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