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/ Posted on 6 January, 2021 18:40
Like most tour guides who made the leap into the virtual experience market to tide through the Covid-19 slump, Lee Xian Jie also ventured down the same route – what’s interesting is that his virtual pivot happened because of a dog.
The 30-year-old Singaporean, who runs Kyoto-based tour agency Craft Tabby with his business partner, Yasuhiro Shiwaku, made the decision to pause the company’s in-person tours last February, at the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak in China.
Lee bringing guests on a tour around Kyoto’s famous Fushimi Inari Shrine in pre-pandemic times
Towards the end of June, it became clearer to them that Covid-19 would drag on. When approached by Airbnb to craft a product for its Online Experiences platform, Lee was initially resistant to the idea as he thought the whole point of travel was to experience things first-hand.