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Apps serve as virtual tour guides to direct and educate visitorsAS SINGAPOREANS grow ever more attached to their smartphones, local heritage sites are vying for their attention by coming up with mobile applications.迷你倉出租The apps help users navigate the areas and understand their history.For example, the National Heritage Board (NHB) launched one last month that provides a three-dimensional panoramic view of Chinatown in days gone by.It comes complete with details such as where different street hawkers used to ply their trade.Users simply press a button to toggle between the past and the present and compare the changes that have swept through the area.These include the new facade of the Sri Mariamman Temple and the absence of the once-familiar fortune teller outside, who has now made way for paved roads and parked cars."We conducted interviews with Chinatown residents to map out interiors such as tailor shops and measured five-foot-ways to render them in their exact measurements in our online replica," said app developer Allan Tham, 39.Called Wish - short for Walking Into Singapore History - the product is available for free at the iTunes app store.The board hopes to introduce similar apps for Singapore's other cultural precincts, such as Kampong Glam and Little India.It introduced one last month that offers an islandwide multimedia city tour, believed to be the first in Asia.The app contains audio guides, images and videos of the different places of interest here, from monuments to historical streets and hawker centres.Called Culture Key, it is also available for free at the iTunes and Google Play儲存倉stores.Other attractions are muscling in on the action by developing their own free apps to hook more visitors.Singapore River One, which represents Singapore's riverfront businesses, will launch an app next month to help users navigate the three quays - Clarke Quay, Robertson Quay and Boat Quay.The app will include an audio walking tour for those interested in the history of the Singapore River and the boats, bridges and buildings that flank it.The Singapore Zoo is to launch a new app in the next few months that will help visitors customise their itinerary and include a map of the parks.Gardens by the Bay, which has been pulling in the crowds as one of the country's latest attractions, will have an app that features interactive trails for its themed gardens and conservatories by the end of next year."Besides helping locals understand the history of the places and get around faster, these apps also benefit tourists as many use their mobiles while travelling," said Mr Alvin Tan, the board's director of heritage institutions.A third of holidaymakers find local activities on mobile devices during their vacations, according to a global survey of more than 35,000 people by travel website TripAdvisor.Yet, tour guides remain unfazed by the potential competition."It will not adversely affect us because some people prefer the personal touch and interaction that we offer," said Ms Tan Li Li, 42, who has been conducting tours for the past eight years."The apps will benefit the tourism industry as a whole as we have more resources to tap on and they will renew interest in our attractions."jantai@sph.com.sg迷你倉沙田