Somewhere over the two-hour flight, I kept asking myself the same question: what on earth made me decide, in five minutes flat, to fly to Singapore for 24 hours and hop back to Vietnam the very next afternoon?
The answer, I think, comes down to three forces shaping consumer culture today: the rise of purpose-driven travel, the genuine connection in a FOMO economy, and… the stories behind the tears that I’m falling in love with.
The New Currency Of Purpose-Driven Travel
Travel used to mean meticulous planning: food, accommodation, the must-check-in spots, and the promise of a picture-perfect escape.
But something has shifted. Increasingly, people are travelling for a single experience: a concert, a sporting event, a pop-up exhibition, or even the launch of a limited-edition product,... This trend has become so widespread that it has earned its own name: gig-tripping - where fans travel to another city or country to attend a live event and build a holiday around it. Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour in 2023 generated an estimated US$5 billion in consumer spending across the United States, while destinations hosting concerts by BTS, BLACKPINK,... have reported noticeable boosts in tourism, hospitality and retail spending. That proves we are entering an era where why we travel matters just as much as where we go.
My trip to Singapore belonged to the same reason, except I wasn't chasing a concert.
I was there for CRY ME AN OCEAN - a collaboration between POP MART, the Singapore Oceanarium and Resorts World Sentosa. Less than five minutes after spotting it online, I had booked a flight. No visa applications, no elaborate planning. With Singapore only a short flight from Vietnam, immigration was almost entirely automated, and I was through to my departure gate in under fifteen minutes.
But a bigger question happened: What makes an experience compelling enough to persuade thousands of people to board a plane for it?
In an era of fast-moving trends, capturing attention is difficult. Keeping it is even harder. The brands that endure rarely rely on a single successful product. Marvel didn't just make blockbuster films. Nintendo has kept franchises like Mario and Pokémon relevant for decades by continuously expanding how fans engage with them. Starbucks transformed coffee from a beverage into a lifestyle centered on place, routine and community.
POP MART, it seems, is attempting something similar. Rather than simply selling designer toys, it is creating destinations, stories and experiences that people are willing to travel for.
A Genuine Connection
By the time art toys reached Vietnam, they were already far more than collectibles.
And over the past two years, Vietnam has quietly become one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing consumer markets for art toys (US$570 million in 2024). Characters like Labubu, Crybaby, Baby Three, Hirono,... have spread far beyond niche collector circles, filling TikTok feeds, Facebook communities and livestream auctions. Limited editions routinely sell out within minutes, while rare pieces often command several times their original retail price on the resale market.
That booming demand has also created a thriving counterfeit market. Fake figures, imitation packaging and copied QR codes have become increasingly common, making authenticity more valuable than ever. In that context, official experiences like CRY ME AN OCEAN offer something buying online cannot: a genuine connection to the characters and the world behind them. And as it turns out - the whole reason behind my short-but-so-worth-it trip.
From The Stories Behind The Tears To The Stories Of The Tears Under Water
Beyond offering an authentic brand experience, CRY ME AN OCEAN also reflects POP MART's growing emphasis on purpose-driven storytelling. Created in collaboration with Singapore Oceanarium and Resorts World Sentosa, the exhibition uses CRYBABY's emotional world to raise awareness of ocean conservation.
Explaining the choice of venue, Michael Song, Country Head of POP MART Singapore, said: "One of the largest aquariums in Southeast Asia, Singapore Oceanarium houses many of the sea creatures that have been transformed into various emotions through the eyes of CRYBABY, and would be the best partner to launch a larger-than-life activation to bring the CRYBABY Cry Me an Ocean story to fans around the world."
Stepping into Singapore Oceanarium, I quickly realised this wasn't simply another aquarium, nor was it a collection of CRYBABY installations scattered throughout the venue. Instead, the experience unfolds across 11 themed zones that seamlessly weave through the Oceanarium, inviting visitors to discover what felt like the stories beneath the sea.
Along the way are displays explaining climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña, alongside stories about marine ecosystems and the challenges facing ocean life. Surrounded by towering tanks in every shade of blue, I forgot I was standing on solid ground. It felt as though I had been submerged beneath the surface, with CRYBABY characters guiding me through the ocean - each carrying its own story, each leaving behind a quiet reminder of why these fragile ecosystems deserve protecting.
According to POP MART, the collaboration also reimagines CRYBABY for a wider audience. The collection transforms the character's signature tears into ocean-inspired creatures, including whales, sharks and other marine animals, while carrying a simple message: In an ocean filled with emotional baggage, stay true to yourself and refuse to be defined.
For Resorts World Sentosa and Singapore Oceanarium, the partnership represents a new way of refreshing a familiar destination. As Lena Lee, Executive Vice President of Attractions & Destination Experience at Resorts World Sentosa, explained, the goal is to give visitors new reasons to return by continually introducing fresh experiences. CRYBABY offered a distinctive emotional and visual language that could reinterpret the Oceanarium while remaining true to what makes the attraction unique.
This is not POP MART's first collaboration in Singapore. The company first partnered with Gardens by the Bay for the DIMOO in the Garden City exhibition in 2021, before bringing multiple IP activations and three POP TOY SHOW events to the country. Last year, together with the Singapore Tourism Board and the National Museum of Singapore, it also launched the first overseas edition of SKULLPANDA: CAGE–UNCAGE.
John Conceicao, Executive Director of Marketing Partnerships, Planning & Capability Development at the Singapore Tourism Board, noted, these partnerships support Singapore's Tourism 2040 vision by creating richer visitor experiences, encouraging higher tourism spending, and keeping the destination vibrant for both international travellers and locals alike.
POP MART, in partnership with Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), will bring its beloved CRYBABY character to the Singapore Oceanarium in the CRYBABY Cry Me an Ocean activation – the first to be set inside a real oceanarium. The vibrant, ocean-themed experience featuring 11 photo zones – including 2 towering outdoor inflatables, life-sized sculptures, and immersive photo opportunities – set alongside marine habitats within one of the world’s largest oceanariums, bringing the Cry Me an Ocean collection into an authentic marine environment for the first time.
- When: 24 June – 30 August 2026
- Where: Singapore Oceanarium - Resorts World Sentosa (24 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island).
- Buy tickets here.