“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
It was with this mantra that I decided to deviate from the conventional career path, and start giving Free Walking Tours in Singapore. I was in my early 30s, had some work experience, a little bit of savings and just enough (unfounded) self-belief.
Prior to this, the Wife and I had spent some time backpacking. “Traveling the World” has always been a common dream of ours. Right after our wedding, we had a “if not now, then when?” conversation. We figured it would be cheaper to “see the world” while we could still endure the potential dodginess of backpacking. We had not grown accustomed to the luxury of hotel stays, and are perfectly comfortable sleeping on thin mattresses in backpacking hostels (as long as there are no bed bugs). We did not yet care for first class seats as long as it can get us from point A to point B safely. Our stomachs could still tolerate the grind of an endless stream of cheap carbs from hygienically-questionable street food stores.
In our three years of traveling, we lived frugally, but rarely did we find ourselves wanting (although it would have been nice to be able to afford that nice cruise off the Galapagos Islands). We found that many of our happiest memories did not come from things we needed to pay an arm and a leg for.
In each city we went to, we gravitated towards Free Walking Tours, partly because we were cheap, but more so because the guides on these tours are the most passionate and knowledgeable ones that we have come across.
Coming back to Singapore, I was quite sure that this was something that I would like to start.
And for a while, it was good.
I was fortunate to assemble a team of like-minded individuals who believe that there are lots of great stories to uncover and share in Singapore.
Work was fun. We loved what we were doing, and we believed we had mastery over our craft. Our guests seemed to enjoy our quirky tours, and most responded with positive feedback on social media and various online platforms.
We accumulated a list of amazing clients, vendors, and partners, many of whom became very good friends. The Business and the Tour Team were growing organically to a point where we were able to take on bigger projects and contracts. Although this business was never going to be in the running for any list of Top 100 businesses, I would often tell friends that I am damn proud of my little mamak shop.
And then COVID-19 Thanos-snapped everything away. Bit by bit, we saw our 2020 turn to dust.
As the whole world began to realise how serious this pandemic actually was, we saw the number of guests on our walks getting fewer with each tour that we conducted. Then the cruise ships started skipping Singapore as a port and the number of inbound flights was drastically reduced.
This meant almost all our private tours scheduled for the year were cancelled or postponed till further notice. When the limit was placed on the number of people that could gather in a place, all our corporate and school gigs were put on deep freeze. And finally, when the Circuit Breaker (CB) came into effect, all tour activities had to be stopped for the foreseeable future.
Logically, we understood that this was a global crisis and these steps were necessary to combat the pandemic, but it did not make the situation any easier, financially and emotionally. We found ourselves facing a bleak situation with no discernible light at the end of the tunnel.
HOW NOW?
“Industries that depend on travel, like aviation, hotels and tourism, will take a long time to get back on their feet, and may never recover fully.”
When the Prime Minister made his speeches on COVID-19’s impact on the various industries, we were like kids in school listening to the teacher announcing the exam results from the lowest score to the highest.
Our friends in the travel industry knew we were pretty high on that infamy list, but never expected things to be so bad that we had to be singled out and named in front of everybody. (Lucky you, if you have not had to go through that particular childhood trauma.)
We sped through the five stages of grief. We raged, we worried, we bargained. We tried to make sense of the situation, but any delusions we had that this would be a temporary thing quickly evaporated.
So where do we go from here?
Honestly, I don’t think anyone really knows.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was kind of heartwarming to see the whole industry rallying together. We had Zoom conferences with industry mates from all over the globe. Tourism veterans who survived SARS weighed in on how this might pan out. The general consensus was that this too shall pass. Where we differed in opinion was the duration of the impact. The optimistic amongst us predicted that the tourism industry would recover by Q2 2021, while others projected it would be 2025 before things could go back to how they were in 2019.
Regardless of varying levels of optimism, everyone knows that we have to start doing things differently, because the way we approach tourism has to be changed.
The most obvious and immediate solution to the problem was to conduct tours virtually.
That way, we could still appeal to a global audience. There is also a captive audience of people who are stuck at home due to the lockdown situation in many countries.
Personally, I was sceptical. I have always believed in this romantic notion that good tours have this unique ability to engage the various senses of our guests. They allow us to tell stories that leave a deeper impression and provide a more well-rounded understanding of the places we visit. This is something that most virtual tours cannot provide.
There is also the very real hurdle of finding ways to monetize these virtual tours. We live in an age of luxury where we have amazing content creators who put up their videos for free on platforms like YouTube. Some of these intrepid travel vloggers have gone to the remotest parts of the globe, capturing gorgeous footage and great perspectives. Even with the interactivity of “live” virtual tours, it is an uphill battle to convince potential guests that these are experiences worth paying for.
Another possible solution was to pivot to “domestic tourism”.
Even prior to COVID, the domestic market has been one that is hard to crack. Outside of National Education (NE) tours and corporate team building events, it is very hard to convince Singaporeans to go for a tour themselves because most Singaporeans’ thinking is that “Singapore is so small” or “We already know Singapore ma.”
Over the last five years or so, we’ve had a mini blossoming of new tour operators who have developed great products to show guests the various facets of Singapore beyond the usual “touristy” offerings. As a whole, we have received pretty good feedback amongst our guests (locals and foreigners), but we have found it very hard to get locals to take the first step of committing to go for a tour—even when our tours were free.
The silver lining of this whole situation is that at least in Singapore, we are not in this alone. Since the beginning of Phase 2 of the Circuit Breaker, we have approached and been approached by unlikely potential business partners. There seems to be a bond between local businesses that has been forged by the battering we’ve taken together over the last few months.
There is an understanding that businesses are not likely to survive this alone. We are starting to see exciting partnerships being formed and new “local-centric” tours that are jointly-curated by unlikely bedfellows.
The Singapore Tourism Board’s $45 million #SingapoRediscovers campaign is another glimmer of hope. Even though most of our own friends have said that they would likely use their $100 SingapoRediscovers vouchers for staycations or attractions (as opposed to supporting their buddy’s flailing business), it does give us a chance to show what we have to offer to the few who would want to take a chance on us.
We are nowhere near being out of the woods yet. Mass tourism will likely take a while to return, and even then, it would take longer to reach the levels that it once did. The industry is losing talents every day, and will likely lose more if the situation drags on. There is a lot of uncertainty that we need to work through, and not all of us will survive the crisis.So why not cut our losses and give it up right now, you may ask. I admit that this option is not entirely off the table. Yet, at the same time, I do believe we still have stories to tell. We probably need to frame them differently from what we are used to, so that we can appeal to a more local or regional audience. We’re willing to try everything, because above all else, it is quite hard to give up a mamak shop that we have poured our heart and soul into.
