Amap & Singapore Tourism Board launch Street Stars

Alibaba's Amap and the Singapore Tourism Board have launched Singapore Street Stars for Chinese visitors, marking the first Street Stars edition outside China.

The guide groups 104 attractions, neighbourhoods and lifestyle venues across Singapore into seven themes to help travellers find both established landmarks and less familiar places. Featured locations include Gardens by the Bay, Merlion Park and Sentosa Island, as well as Joo Chiat Road, Haji Lane, Maxwell Food Centre and Tiong Bahru Market.

The themes are Photo-Perfect Spots, Where Family Fun Begins, After-Dark Adventures, Next-Gen Crowd Favourites, Nature's Reset, Curated Finds, and Local Life, Real Finds. The line-up spans attractions, restaurants, hotels and retail locations.

The launch extends a partnership between Amap and the tourism agency focused on travel discovery, trip planning and visitor services for Chinese travellers before and during visits to Singapore. It also gives Singapore businesses another way to appear in travel searches and itinerary planning on Amap's platform.

Interest from Chinese travellers has increased in recent months, according to data from the mapping and local services platform. During the summer travel season, the average daily number of users searching for Singapore-related content rose 52.3% from June levels, while attraction searches increased 91.2%.

Interest in shopping and dining also climbed on the app. Search queries related to shopping rose 87.4%, while dining searches increased 70.9%.

Tourism push

The rankings are based on actual user preferences, and the project is the first Street Stars guide created with a national tourism board.

Andrew Phua, Chief Representative and Executive Director, Greater China, Singapore Tourism Board, said the guide is designed to reflect authentic recommendations.

"Singapore Street Stars rely on actual users' preferences reflecting authentic recommendations," said Andrew Phua, Chief Representative and Executive Director, Greater China, Singapore Tourism Board.

He added that the aim is to broaden how Chinese travellers experience the city-state.

"We hope that more Chinese travellers will use Street Stars to explore Singapore's diverse travel products and discover experiences based on their passions," Phua said.

Alongside the rankings, Amap is testing a separate feature called Flying Street View at selected sites in Singapore. The tool uses 360-degree panoramic imagery to let users preview destinations and nearby surroundings while planning journeys.

Initial trial locations include Merlion Park, Sentosa Island, Universal Studios Singapore, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Zoo and Jewel Changi Airport. Selected restaurants and hotels included in the rankings are also part of the preview feature.

Amap is also offering Chinese-language search for places of interest in Singapore within the app. Travellers can use the platform to arrange airport transfers, pre-booked car services and on-demand rides through local operators.

Built-in translation functions are intended to help users communicate with drivers, while the app also supports Chinese mobile payment methods commonly used by mainland visitors. Together, these features show a broader effort to move beyond discovery and into practical in-trip services.

First overseas edition

For Amap, the Singapore project is an early test of whether a domestic discovery format can be extended to overseas destinations with local institutional backing. The move comes as travel platforms compete to shape decisions before visitors arrive and while they are moving around cities.

Liu Li, General Manager of Amap's Information Platform Business, said the company sees scope to adapt the format for other markets.

"We will continue to explore localised rankings and services suited to different countries and regions, meeting the diverse needs of Chinese travellers while giving distinctive local businesses more opportunities to reach Chinese users," Li said.