According to the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) Customer Satisfaction Index, the tourism sector achieved a score of 74.5, the highest since the index was launched. ISES Director Caroline Lim pointed out that the improvement was largely due to the hotels being able to meet tourists’ expectations. New facilities and the painstaking efforts that the hotel operators had put into planning and running their hotels also played a role. As an example, she pointed out how Shangri-la, which was the top-ranked hotel for this year’s index, had added new facilities and enhanced staff training. ISES Academic Director Assistant Professor Marcus Lee stressed that tourists generally gave a higher score to the sector than Singaporeans, as their objective in coming here was to enjoy the food and see the sights. The fact that Singaporeans had also given a higher score shows the service standards for the tourism and food and beverage (F&B) sectors are gradually maturing. Ms Lim added that there must be improvements in technology and productivity, so that customers’ expectations can still be met even as there is a shortage of manpower and customers’ expectations are changing.