SINGAPORE: Streets are being spruced up, malls constructed and luxury brands courted: the race to be Asia’s international shopping paradise is intensifying from Bangkok to Hong Kong, Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

The region’s shopping hubs are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to roll out ambitious plans to makeover their prime retail districts in the hope of luring more high-spending tourists.

Bangkok, with a reputation for cheap silk and brand-name imitations, is trying to reposition itself as an upscale shopping destination — alongside temples and beaches — to woo foreign tourists from more established shopping rivals Hong Kong and Singapore.

At the same time, Singapore is on a drive to transform its swanky Orchard Road into what the government envisages as “one of the greatest shopping streets of the world”, while Hong Kong’s Tourism Board already touts the southern Chinese enclave as “shoppers’ paradise”.

“The shopping capital of Asia is always a much contested title.

“They are fighting for the tourism retail dollars and it’s a good fight to watch and the only winners are the tourists,” says Christopher Khoo, managing director of a tourism consultancy in Singapore.

Billed as Southeast Asia’s biggest shopping mall, the 366-million-US-dollar Siam Paragon opened its doors last month in the Thai capital.

Covering 500,000 square meters (5.3 million square feet), it offers everything from Big Mac hamburgers to yachts and high-fashion brands.

“We want Siam Paragon to be a global tourist destination like Times Square in New York,” Kriengsak Tantiphipop, chief marketing officer of Siam Paragon Development Co., said during the opening.

Plenty is at stake for Bangkok and its rivals, as international visitors who travelled to the region spent at least 125 billion US dollars during their stays in 2004, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association based in Bangkok.

The latest figures from a credit card giant say tourists to the Asia Pacific region spent about 5.7 billion US dollars on their cards during the third quarter of 2005 with shopping receipts accounting for the biggest component.—AFP