Singapore – The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Google will be expanding on its partnership to create more augmented reality (AR) experiences, which will be directly available on Google Maps for the first time.
This partnership with Google builds upon the success of Merli’s Immersive Adventure – an innovative AR tour to six enchanting stops around Singapore through STB’s Visit Singapore Travel Guide app launched in January this year.
As part of this pilot, STB will continue to use Google’s ARCore and Geospatial Creator to develop new location-based AR experiences.
Unlike before when STB’s AR experiences were made available only on its travel app, these new AR experiences can soon be discovered and enjoyed entirely within the Google Maps mobile app, one of two cities in which these experiences will be available.
Moreover, STB has also onboarded over a dozen other tourism stakeholders in Singapore to join the pilot, who themselves will also develop location-based AR experiences to provide 30 places of interests with AR experiences, creating an immersive journey across key tourism precincts in Singapore.
With this expansion, the AR content will now be visible remotely via Street View on the Google Maps mobile app for a seamless and accessible experience regardless of location. Users near the landmarks can also discover the AR content on their mobile devices by scanning their surroundings using Lens in Maps, as it overlays the physical surroundings in the real world.
The full experience will be available on Google Maps later this Summer. STB plans to further grow the number of location-based AR experiences in Google Maps beyond 30, building on its goal of making Singapore the world’s first “AR City” in Google Maps.
Talking about this latest offering, Eric Lai, group product manager, AR, said, “We’re thrilled to unlock a new way for people to interact, engage and discover Singapore’s vibrant culture and history on Google Maps. Through location-based AR experiences, we’re making it more intuitive for over a billion users to discover this iconic city in a way like never before.”
Meanwhile, Simon Ang, director, The Collaboratory, Singapore Tourism Board, commented, “We are excited to extend our partnership with Google to bring even more immersive and innovative experiences to travellers through AR on Google Maps. This partnership underscores STB’s dedication to testing the use of frontier technologies which can revolutionise the visitor’s experience of tomorrow.”
“This pilot greatly benefits local businesses, who can leverage AR to tell different stories over the same spaces, and have their content discoverable and accessible on Google Maps. It also benefits travellers as it aids their discovery of new places of interest, and enriches them with a deeper understanding of Singapore’s rich history and culture through interactive storytelling,” he added.
