Book Trips

In line with the Singapore Heritage Festival’s 2022 “Travel and Tourism Heritage” theme, Tusitala proposed an online literary map of tourist attractions in Singapore.

A response to the ongoing travel restrictions and current public interest in staycations, this project offers audiences fresh ways of looking at familiar local attractions. Instead of going somewhere far from home, people can immerse themselves in new places by experiencing them through the eyes of local writers.

The aim was that users would leave the web experience feeling curious about these places, more informed about their history, and motivated to visit them in person. They should also develop an appreciation of Singapore literature, and how it captures slices of culture from different points in time.

Objectives

Celebrate Singapore tourist attractions in a quirky yet familiar presentation
Create encounters with tourist sites that prompt users to see history differently – not as static heritage commodified for international consumers, but rather as real, everyday life that plays out in public spaces continually
Introduce new readers to Singapore literature, by appealing to general audiences (ages 18-45) who are interested in travel as well as culturally minded tourists
Make Singapore literature hip, engaging, and relevant in the digital age

Final concept

The interactive map will be light-hearted and fun, with 15 featured attractions of past and present Singapore attractions, as seen through short stories, essays, and poems.

After reading each excerpt, readers will play a short quiz, and as a reward, they will receive a location-specific AR filter that would be illustrated by an artist.

These filters encourages them to snap photos and interact with the location virtually, and might also entice them to visit the site in person.

Featured Locations / Book excerpts / Illustrators

	Locations	Year	Author	Genre	Publisher	AR Filter Illustrator
1	Final Notes from a Great Island	2006	Neil Humphreys	Essay	Marshall Cavendish	Don Low
2	“Conversation on the Pier”	2009	Paul Tan	Poem	NAC	Joy Ho
3	“Two Harbours”	2018	Chew Yi Wei	Essay	Marshall Cavendish	Ray Toh
4	The Devil’s Garden	2013	Nigel Barley	Novel	Monsoon Books	Eliz Ong
5	“The Singapore River”	2009	Latha	Poem	NAC	Patrick Yee
6	“Feed at the Raffles”	2013	Wong Yoon-wah	Essay	Epigram Books	Claire Low
7	“Ramblings of a Trolley Uncle”	2016	Ng Seow Hwee	Short Story	Math Paper Press	Andrew Tan (aka. Drewscape)
8	Singapore Grip	1978	J. G. Farell	Novel	Weidenfeld & Nicolson	Rachael Lum
9	“F.M.S.R”	2014	Teo Poh Leng	Poem	Ethos Books	Araikreva
10	“II. The Spa at Second Court”	2018	Yong Shu Hoong	Poem	Ethos Books	Anngee Neo
11	“The Daily Double”	1934	J. Douglas Graham	Travel Writing	Marshall Cavendish	Charmaine Tan
12	The River’s Song	2014	Su-chen Christine Lim	Novel	Aurora, Metro Books	James Tan
13	1819	2013	Isa Kamari	Novel	Silverfish Books	Teo Wenn Ki
14	A Different Sky	2010	Meira Chand	Novel	Penguin	Eugenia Hoy
15	“An Eastern Petticoat Lane”	1931	R. N. Walling	Travel Writing	Marshall Cavendish	Muhammad Izdi

AR Filters

Engagement through contests and giveaways

For Book Trips, Tusitala collaborated with actual venues such as Sentosa, Esplanade, Haw Par Villa, and the Indian Heritage Centre to offer prizes for the winners of our mini contests and quizzes.

Dedicated Spotify playlist

Inspired by the 15 attractions featured in Book Trips, we even created the perfect accompanying Spotify playlist to inspire a sense of wonder for your local travels:

Travel Literary – a Spotify playlist curated by Tusitala