Tennis stars can cook too
What do you get when you mix a cocktail of the best ingredients in tourism and sports?
The author having a heady moment with the star of the show.
This week, Singapore is seeing the results of this heady concoction first hand as it plays host to the largest tennis event in the women’s professional tour after the four grand slams.
Eight players are in town to compete in a fierce competition that pits the best players in the world against each other. In tennis terms, it doesn’t get much better than this.
For Singapore and its tourism industry, it also doesn’t get much better. Much like the F1, this WTA Finals, which has a five-year lease in Singapore, is expected to generate huge amounts of global media real estate for Singapore and millions of resulting tourism receipts therefore.
I got a taste of this cocktail too when I took part in an evening event hosted by Accor Hotels for its VIP loyalty members. It gave the tourism industry – people outside the sporting fraternity – a chance to hobnob with the best in the tennis trade.
World number one and holder of 18 grand slam singles titles Serena Williams graced the event, obliging the group that had gathered to get up close to her, with photo and selfie sessions and a chance to watch her put together an apple tart with Accor’s culinary designer and Sofitel So Singapore’s first female hotel executive chef Anne Cecile Degenne (pictured).
In the short 30 minutes or so when sports and tourism came together that evening, the effects of taking in this heady cocktail went much further. Those of us privileged ones who got photos taken next to the tennis goddess were incessantly posting, tweeting, sharing and boasting to everyone and anyone about our experience. For Accor, it was the perfect coming out party for one of its debutantes – So Singapore.
