Hotels are constantly looking for creative ways to market themselves. The Kowloon Shangri-La is celebrating its 30th anniversary by inviting the public to submit pictures they have taken of the hotel over the years in a photo contest and a promotion, offering discounts to those celebrating their birthdays in the Tsim Sha Tsui East property.
The Fullerton Hotel Singapore has gone a step further by helping a Japanese artist create a temporary hotel room around the iconic Merlion statue and inviting guests to spend the night with the half-lion, half-fish statue in it.
As part of the Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House, Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi was invited to participate. He is known for incorporating city landmarks in a living room setting, creating a special encounter between an art object and its viewer.
Nishi has built temporary living rooms around other pieces, such as a one-room apartment atop a 14th century cathedral in Basel and another with the equestrian statue L'Artificier on top of the main Maison Hermes store in Tokyo.
For the Singapore Biennale, the Japanese artist chose the Merlion, symbol of the city state, to place within a temporary hotel room.
The statue is encased in a small temporary structure on stilts on the waterfront and, as the Fullerton is closest to the statue, it was natural for the hotel to participate.
'The Fullerton Hotel Singapore has a sustained commitment to upholding our history presented against modern elements,' says the hotel's general manager Giovanni Viterale.