With the Covid-19 pandemic, virtual local tours and experiences are attracting not only Singapore residents but also foreigners curious to learn about the sights and sounds here.

While the virtual tour experience remains novel to many, including tour guides here, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is looking to promote more of such activities abroad and encouraging providers to take their offerings online.

On Thursday, STB and Airbnb signed a two-year memorandum of understanding to promote the local tours and experiences on Airbnb's platform.

The tours already on online platforms, such as TourHQ and Airbnb's Online Experiences, include live-streamed walkabouts or cooking demonstrations, while others consist of pre-recorded segments, with hosts in their own homes or offices while engaging with participants.

Ms P.S. Yeo is one of several here who have taken their tours and experiences online, in a bid to continue hosting travellers while globetrotting remains a challenge due to Covid-19 border restrictions.

Ms Yeo, who owns and operates Everyday Tour Company, started the Explore Crazy and Rich Singapore online tour in July.

She said the majority of her participants are from abroad.

Her tour, centred on the 2018 hit movie Crazy Rich Asians which features Singapore prominently, aims to compare the lived experiences of Singaporeans with those portrayed in the film, and has drawn audiences from around the world.

"The movie was super popular in the United States, so many of the tour participants come from there, but I've also received sign-ups from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and China," said Ms Yeo.

She hosts between 20 and 60 participants a week, depending on her schedule and whether she receives group bookings.

Like Ms Yeo, other tour operators and hosts are tailoring their products to suit overseas audiences.

Mr Dhruv Shanker, an expatriate from India, said his virtual cooking classes have been popular enough among foreigners for him to run them daily at 6am to cater to participants from the western hemisphere, before he begins work later as a marketing consultant.

Mr Shanker, who has lived here for almost seven years, said while his classes focus on Indian food, he shares a list of must-eat hawker food and Singapore delicacies that participants should try out here.

"When we're cooking, we don't just talk about food - many are curious about life in Singapore. They ask me about the education system, law and order..." he said.

The former chef has about 50 students a week on average, with about 90 per cent tuning in to the classes from abroad.

When he ran physical classes in his apartment mostly on weekend afternoons before the coronavirus pandemic, about half the participants were tourists from overseas.

For tour operator Monster Day Tours, its fortnightly virtual tours of one-north - which it dubs the "Silicon Valley of Singapore" - are mostly attended by Singaporeans but there are foreigners too.

Its founder Suen Tat Yam said about 80 per cent of the participants are Singapore residents, while the remaining 20 per cent are mostly from other parts of Asia.

The company intends to add virtual tour locations and make such events a permanent fixture in its offerings. "There are some who do not have the privilege to travel but still want to explore new places. We want to make tours accessible to them too," said Mr Suen.

Mrs Vandana Om Kumar, founder of TourHQ, a platform that connects guides and travellers around the world, said virtual tours might be here to stay.

"It is budget-friendly, and makes locations abroad a lot more accessible," she noted, adding that virtual tours will remain popular among senior citizens who may face mobility challenges when travelling.

But it remains to be seen whether virtual tours will be a game changer financially, said Mr Ng Boon Gee, senior director of business development at Gardens by the Bay, which offered virtual content on its website during the circuit breaker period. It now hosts live virtual tours, workshops and webinars.

Still, he noted that "virtual tours have helped us to extend our outreach to new audiences who may otherwise not have thought of visiting the gardens or are unable to do so because of travel restrictions".

Guides and tour operators said virtual tours will not cannibalise future physical visits to the country.

Ms Jean Wang, chairman of the Society of Tourist Guides Singapore, said "virtual tours can whet (foreigners') appetite but... people will still want to taste and smell - you cannot replicate that online".

• Additional reporting by Ng Wei Kai