Walk from home: Hong Kong tour company moves online to survive the pandemic | HT Tech

Walk from home: Hong Kong tour company moves online to survive the pandemic

A Hong Kong tourism company has moved its walking tours online to reach a travel-starved audience unable to explore new places due to coronavirus restrictions.

By:REUTERS
| Updated on: Aug 24 2020, 08:02 IST
The tours are filmed with a phone and a gimbal and are interactive, with specialist guests such as architects available to answer questions.
The tours are filmed with a phone and a gimbal and are interactive, with specialist guests such as architects available to answer questions.
The tours are filmed with a phone and a gimbal and are interactive, with specialist guests such as architects available to answer questions.
The tours are filmed with a phone and a gimbal and are interactive, with specialist guests such as architects available to answer questions.

The company, Walk in Hong Kong, runs free online tours in Cantonese focussed on local history and culture, with help from government subsidies and private donations. While bookings for its regular in-person tours typically took a week to fill, one recent virtual tour filled 70 spots overnight.

It now plans to run such tours in English for an overseas audience on a permanent basis. It expects to start charging around HK$100 ($13) per person from next month.

The tours are filmed with a phone and a gimbal and are interactive, with specialist guests such as architects available to answer questions. Eight people are working in two teams, one on the ground, the other interacting with the audience from a studio in between tour stops.

ALSO READ: Life during pandemic: How SMEs are using technology to deal with the change

"We are thinking about turning it into a program that appeals to overseas guests, for example talking about Hong Kong's history and Hong Kong's current events, to explain what is happening to the city," said managing director Olivia Tang.

"We can have hundreds of people from all around the world attend at the same time."

Tourism in Hong Kong has been crippled in the past year first by pro-democracy protests, then by the pandemic. Many countries have also issued travel advisories after Beijing introduced a sweeping national security law last month that tightens the central government's grip on China's freest city.

ALSO READ: Google is missing out on the Covid e-commerce revolution

Tourist arrivals plummeted 99.7% in June from a year earlier to 14,606.

Julianne Chan, 27, joined a recent tour about architecture in Kennedy Town, the neighbourhood where she grew up, after having to cancel a trip to London due to COVID-19.

"During the pandemic ...there's not a lot you can do," she said.

"With these constraints, I would still go on a virtual tour, but if I can choose, I would always opt for just going abroad myself and seeing with my own eyes." 

Catch all the Latest Tech News, Mobile News, Laptop News, Gaming news, Wearables News , How To News, also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

First Published Date: 24 Aug, 08:02 IST
Tags:
NEXT ARTICLE BEGINS