Singapore is pioneering mental health tourism, opening 16 therapeutic gardens to soothe visitors with autism, dementia, anxiety, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). By 2030, it plans to have 30 free gardens, designed with input from scientists to gently stimulate human senses of smell, touch, taste, hearing, and sight, says Singapore’s National Parks Board (NPB).
Unique features include ultra-violet light mazes, confidence-building lookouts, memory-triggering signage, immune-boosting horticulture zones, and wheelchair obstacle courses, the NPB states. The layouts were influenced by neuroscientists and psychologists, who studied the brain activity of 92 visitors to Singapore’s first therapeutic garden, HortPark. They found this site offered greater mental health benefits than regular gardens, helping improve mood, regulate emotions, lower stress, and reduce body inflammation.
Therapeutic gardens are a public health measure and key to Singapore’s goal aim of becoming one of the world’s top wellness destinations. In a tourism sense, wellness often refers merely to spa treatments, Singapore’s approach is more scientific. Art therapy galleries, flotation treatment centers, curative light studios, and healing parks are among the unique attractions Singapore has launched or proposed, says Carrie Kwik, Singapore Tourism Board Executive Director.
Singapore building on its eco-tourism appeal
Green tourism is already a calling card of this wealthy Asian city-state. Travelers land at Singapore’s Changi Airport to see a 131-foot indoor waterfall hemmed by thousands of plants. Singapore National Orchid Garden showcases the country’s status as a leading exporter of orchids. The Mandai Wildlife Reserve hosts verdant attractions like the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Bird Paradise, and River Wonders. And 10 million tourists a year visit its distinctive Gardens by the Bay, a giant botanic facility famed for bold architecture and powered with renewable energy.
Therapeutic gardens are unlikely to ever match that popularity, but Singapore views them as a forward-thinking tourism strategy. Ranging in size from 0.15 to 1.5 acres, the gardens were launched in 2016, with the most recent opening in December 2024.
Visitors to the gardens, scattered across this tiny nation, find wheelchair-accessible paths pierce dense arrangements of carefully chosen plants. Species that are variously fragrant, medicinal, edible, vibrantly colored, or intricately textured, to arouse all five senses, the NPB explains. Other plants lure butterflies and birds which, along with water features, enhance the gardens’ visual and aural appeal.
Garden visits can ease dementia
Tourists with dementia, anxiety, or depression can benefit from horticulture sections at several therapeutic gardens, Singapore medical research shows. Relaxing tasks such as planting herbs, watering flowers, and pressing leaves are possible at Yishun Pond Park, Punggol Park, West Coast Park, and Sembawang Park. That research found such activities improved the immune cell composition of participants. This, in turn, can ease symptoms of certain neurological and mental health disorders.
Meanwhile, garden decorations linked to bygone eras help trigger memories for visitors with dementia, the NPB says. Jurong Lake Gardens is embellished by iconic photos, signage, toys from Singapore’s past, and in-built chess boards like those common in the country’s old housing estates.
(Related: Dementia-friendly tourism is on the rise—here’s why it’s so important.)
Designed to calm neurodiverse children
Children with autism or ADHD are also catered to at Jurong Lake Gardens. The unique feature of its kids’ section is a maze with a path that glows in the evening because it’s made of minerals that absorb ultraviolet light during the day. As opposed to harsh spotlights, this soft illumination creates a calming, fairytale setting.
Neurodiverse tourists may also appreciate Singapore’s largest therapeutic garden, at West Coast Park. Informed by scientific research, this oceanside space is dotted with small mounds. Each one acts as a lookout point, so visitors with autism can pause, survey the garden’s layout, and proceed through it with greater confidence, the NPB explains.
Sembawang Park’s therapeutic garden also was curated to comfort autistic children. Cocooned in this 0.55-acre site is a forest classroom for listening to bird calls. Nearby is an “edible garden” to pluck and sample herbs and spices, which stimulates not just smell, taste, and touch, but also children’s hand-eye coordination, according to the NPB.
To aid visitors with ADHD, Sun Plaza Park has activity areas alongside relaxation zones, according to the NPB. After using the play equipment in the park, they can calm themselves in relaxation zones, which are quieter, shadier nooks with fragrant plants with reputed lulling properties, like ylang-ylang.
(Related: Here’s how parks and public lands are becoming more autism-friendly.)
Science shows therapeutic gardens work
Visiting such therapeutic gardens can provide diverse mental health benefits, according to a 2022 study by scientists at Singapore, Japan, and Poland universities. They analyzed the brain activity of dozens of adults during their visits to three locations in Singapore: A busy urban area, a rooftop green space, and HortPark therapeutic garden. Overall, participants displayed the healthiest neurological activity while in the therapeutic space.
The therapeutic garden at Punggol Park features the first outdoor wheelchair obstacle course, and the first inclusive agility course located in a therapeutic garden—used for both physiotherapy and recreational purposes. Photograph Courtesy National Parks Board
“People have a natural affinity to associate with nature, and exposure to nature reduces the state of arousal and reduces stress,” says Sophianne Araib, the group director of the Singapore National Parks Board. “Nature exposure has also been shown to promote more effortless brain function, leading to recovery of our attention and cognitive capacity.”
(Related: You’ve heard of forest bathing. Now try forest therapy.)
An increase in mental health tourism
Singapore’s therapeutic gardens represent a global shift towards designing tourism facilities that benefit mental health, says Jun Wen, Tourism Professor at Macau University of Science and Technology. Wen co-published research, based on interviews with more than 100 people with dementia, which claims travel can ease their symptoms, by providing cognitive and sensory stimulation from new sights, smells, tastes, and social encounters.
He believes tourism can also ease anxiety and depression via eco attractions, like Singapore’s therapeutic gardens. “Such initiatives demonstrate how travel could evolve beyond leisure and recreation to become a meaningful intervention for enhancing mental health,” Wen says.
Singapore’s therapeutic gardens enhance its reputation as an accessible and eco-friendly destination, says Associate Professor Kuan-Huei Lee, a tourism expert from the Singapore Institute of Technology. It is one the world’s most verdant cities, at least 46 percent covered by green space, thanks to the impact of the Singapore Government’s 60 Years of Greening project.
(Related: Here’s how planning a trip can help your mental health.)
Singapore is investing heavily in green attractions
Launched in 1963, this national campaign aimed to prevent rapidly urbanizing Singapore from becoming a concrete jungle. Instead, it would create a “garden city”. This project was led by thousands of volunteers and involved public tree planting, building hundreds of community gardens, and establishing eco-friendly attractions like Gardens by the Bay, and therapeutic gardens.
Now the Singapore Tourism Board has announced plans to open a major new wellness attraction near Gardens by the Bay, calling for public proposals linked to therapeutic art, or flotation or light therapies, saying it wanted “concepts that can positively impact physical, emotional, or mental wellness.”
“With the rising demand for more restorative and wellness-related experiences, we believe Singapore is well-placed to be a leading Urban Wellness destination that prioritizes holistic well-being,” says Carrie Kwik, Singapore Tourism Board Executive Director.
Similarly themed is Singapore’s new Naturalist Night Adventures tour on its tropical Sentosa Island. This experience offers calm, peace, and soothing sensory stimulation amid a jungle setting, says Eileen Lee, senior vice president of the Singapore Tourism Board Senior. During this guided tour, visitors explore a rainforest in the dark, using their heightened senses of sound, touch, and smell to identify exotic flora and fauna.
This is yet another plank of Singapore’s evolving mental health tourism strategy. An innovative approach, centered on therapeutic gardens, which aims to simultaneously heal its residents, and cater to foreign visitors with autism, dementia, anxiety, or ADHD.
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