A traditional hawker center with food stalls and people dining in Singapore.Recently, renewed attention has turned to protecting and preserving Singapore’s distinctive cultural heritage.
It may feel like a lifetime ago, but during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO officially recognised Singapore’s hawker culture by adding it to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The inscription followed an arduous two-year process and marked an important victory for a beloved but increasingly vulnerable trade.
In response to that historic milestone, Chris Flynn, then President and CEO of the World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage (WTACH), penned a commentary that was subsequently picked up by industry and mainstream media.
Recognition meets economic reality
Six years later, many of the concerns Flynn raised remain unresolved. In The Preservation Paradox: Singapore’s Hawker Centres as a Case Study in Cultural Food Policy, published by the Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center in April 2026, Jenny Dorsey examined whose interests preservation policies ultimately serve. A professional chef, food writer and researcher, Dorsey conducted the work during a Fulbright–National Geographic fellowship with support from the National University of Singapore.
Her study drew upon two years of fieldwork, including semi-structured interviews with 21 hawkers conducted between October 2024 and July 2025. The findings exposed an uncomfortable contradiction: hawkers can be celebrated as guardians of national culture while lacking the labour flexibility and financial protections needed to make their work sustainable. Some interviewees feared the industry could face near-total collapse within a decade if those conditions did not change.
Dorsey distinguished between preserving the “form” of hawker centres—the open-air layouts, compact stalls, communal tables and familiar atmosphere, and protecting their “function” as providers of affordable meals, accessible entrepreneurship and welcoming community spaces. Her research argued that safeguarding one without the other risks hollowing out the very culture UNESCO recognition was intended to celebrate.
The study documented rising ingredient and operating costs, uneven rental structures, labour shortages and fragile outcomes from some training initiatives. Of the 566 participants who completed the Hawkers’ Development Programme, Dorsey reported that only 16 stalls remained operational as of 2025. Her central lesson was clear: cultural preservation cannot succeed unless the people carrying that culture can earn a living and pass their knowledge forward.
Singapore invests in the next generation
Singapore has not stood still. In March 2025, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment announced plans to invest up to S$1 billion in upgrading existing hawker centres and building five new ones. Eligible stalls also received S$600 in one-time rental support during Singapore’s 60th anniversary year.
The response extended beyond infrastructure. To discourage unrealistic tender bids, the National Environment Agency began publishing median assessed market rents for centres with vacant stalls and announced an online tool to help prospective operators understand the costs of running a hawker business before submitting a bid.
Manpower and productivity were also addressed. From January 2025, eligible stallholders were permitted to employ Long-Term Visit Pass holders as stall assistants. More than S$3.4 million had also been disbursed by the end of 2024 to help hawkers adopt equipment and digital tools such as ordering and kitchen-management systems. Centralised dishwashing, automated tray-return systems and shared operating arrangements were among the measures available to reduce the physical and staffing demands of the trade.
Singapore continued supporting new entrants through its Incubation Stall Programme, Hawkers’ Development Programme and Hawkers Succession Scheme. By the end of 2024, more than 100 aspiring hawkers had completed apprenticeships under experienced mentors.
The Ministry’s wider message, reinforced during a November 2024 parliamentary debate, was that safeguarding hawker culture is a shared responsibility involving government, businesses, communities and consumers. Policy can create better operating conditions, but diners must also accept that preserving affordable food cannot mean expecting hawkers to absorb every increase in ingredients, labour and utilities.
These measures represent meaningful progress. Yet the larger question extends beyond buildings, machinery and training: can hawking provide a sufficiently fair and sustainable livelihood for another generation to carry it forward?
A tradition under pressure
Yet hidden within this story is a troubling reality. Hawking was once viewed as a respected profession and a family lineage to inherit and continue. Today, its appeal appears to be waning. Without meaningful change, there is a real threat that many of the skills associated with Singapore’s hawkers could disappear.
Providing nutritious, affordable food has always been central to the hawker trade and to Singaporean life. Increasing ingredient costs, however, create a serious challenge. So does age. Younger generations may be unwilling or unable to accept the long hours now required to make a hawker business profitable.
Could UNESCO recognition provide a timely lifeline? Could it offer the impetus to protect, preserve and reshape this culinary art form in ways its founders could never have imagined? I believe the answer is yesbut recognition must become action.
Tourism can help, but communities must lead
UNESCO status creates an opportunity to attract travellers seeking immersive, authentic and culturally rich experiences. Many are willing to pay a fairer price and want their spending to benefit local communities. They recognise the value of the custodians who protect local traditions and want to travel with purpose, rather than simply pass through as tourists.
But it is not enough to sit back and assume visitors will find these culinary traditions for themselves, or that Singapore’s temples of street food will continue simply because they always have. Opportunity sometimes needs a push.
This is the time for planning, policy and people. It requires meaningful engagement with hawker communities: listening to where they are, understanding where they came from and considering where they should go next. Their stories must be heard, and what they say must inform what happens.
Tourism can contribute by respecting hawker centres as community spaces rather than treating them as attractions staged for outsiders. It can recognise fair value, support local custodians and help visitors understand that every dish carries knowledge, labour and history.
If that work is done well, the traditions and artistry of Singapore’s hawkers can flourish for generations to come. Visitors like me will still be able to pass through once in a while, inhale the past—and celebrate its future.
About WTACH
The World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage is a not-for-profit membership organisation focused on protecting cultural heritage through responsible, sustainable, ethical and equitable tourism. WTACH connects leaders from government, industry, communities and academia, turning research and cultural knowledge into practical policies, plans and training. Its work includes heritage interpretation, carrying-capacity analysis, revenue capture and community stewardship, helping destinations ensure that tourism strengthens the cultures and people on which it depends.
Sources and further reading
UNESCO — Hawker culture in Singapore
Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center — The Preservation Paradox
Singapore Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment — Committee of Supply 2025
Singapore Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment — Response to Motion on Hawker Culture
