Think of Sentosa, and glitzy resorts and tourist spots come to mind. Yet, scattered among the fancy hotels and crowded theme parks are the island’s hidden secrets - endangered trees, cheeky critters and beautiful plants.
In January this year, the Sentosa Development Corporation - known as Sentosa Leisure Group with its subsidiaries - was named a finalist in the Tourism For Tomorrow Awards, a worldwide travel industry accolade for sustainable tourism efforts.
The corporation, tasked with developing Sentosa as an attraction since 1972, was up for the Destination Stewardship Award, a category open to any country, region, state or town that protects its natural and cultural heritage while promoting itself as a vacation spot. This year’s award eventually went to the Peaks of the Balkans committee, responsible for creating a 192km hiking trail across the mountains of Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania.
While Sentosa’s charms are more modest, compared to the formerly war-torn region’s transformative tourism feat, it is the result of decades-long planning which fiercely guards its green areas, despite the temptations of lucrative over-building.
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