Perspective Journeys

Business Traveler

This tour offers the business traveler an alternative look of Singapore.

The tour topics can be designed to revolve around your area of business to see how your products and services might be perceived from a cultural perspective.

Singapore looks very "western" and "modern"

Is this a "westernized" society or city that "looks western"?

Have you noticed how "westernization" is often equated as "modernization"?

Have you observed how "traditional Asian culture" is often exoticised into a set of values trapped in time and untouched by change?

What is the modern social ideal and how is this related to "Asian values"?

How are consumption and household decisions shaped by cultural forces?

What are consumers trying to achieve thorough the process of consumption?

How are these related to you as a business traveler?

We will understand these issues through the relationship between the "traditional" and the "modern".

People differentiate themselves through the things they use and brands they buy. However, these behavior is often shaped by traditional forces even if the "modern individuals" are not consciously aware of it.

We will visit public institutions like temples and monasteries to explore the cultural worldview and how it evolves in relation to changes in society. A more complicated way  of saying this is " public institutions that are embodiments of cultural worldview or weltanschauung".

The information show how the "traditional" continues to shape behavior in contemporary society and more importantly, how it relates to you as a business person.

You gain insight into consumption issues like what people eat in MacDonald's, drink Starbucks, prefers to live in condominiums and buy the kind of things and brands they buy. It explains reasons behind behaviors and implications for corporate and marketing strategies.

Issues addressed include social aspirations, identity and notions of modernity. These issues in turn influences decisions on private consumption, household expenditure, budgeting and social behaviors.

The following examples show how tours can be tailor-made to add value to your business trip:

Finance and banking industry, the program focus on notions of wealth, the ways in which the wealthy spends their resources and the kind of expenses that are considered "good investment". How such ideas change over the generations and might still be motivated by the same dynamic though in different ways.

Educational sector, the program examines the role of education in a traditional family and why parents would want to invest in a "good education". We will try to understand what a "successful education" means, what people wants out of an "education" and the ways in which culture shapes attitude towards education and financing education.

FMCG industry, the program explores why people buy the things they buy and what they try to say about themselves through consumption. how brands function as a symbol and how people use the process of consumption as a social marker.

The program also explores how goods can be embodied with cultural notions and limits the way in which it can or cannot be made a commodity. 

Medical Industry, this program looks at concepts of of living and death and notions of well and unwell. These notions have an impact on patients decision to seek or not to seek treatment and the ways in which patients and their family seek to understand physical conditions in relation to cultural concepts of existence, death and afterlife. Is death the end or a transition or just the beginning?

This program is perfect for a business traveler with a few hours to spare.

For the really busy business traveler, a in room version is available.

If you are a travel agent or organizer, click here

If you have any queries or require further information, please write to: info@perspectivejourneys.com

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