As corporate Singapore looks to move beyond conventional teambonding activities like bowling and karaoke, local tour operator Hidden Heritage is making a name for itself by offering a grittier alternative: trekking through defunct oil plants, and descending into wartime air-raid shelters.
Founded by husband-and-wife duo Amanda Cheong and Stanley Cheah, Hidden Heritage has carved out a niche by specialising in what they call “hidden history”.
Driven by a surge in interest from C-suite executives seeking high-engagement outings, these corporate tours move beyond traditional sightseeing to foster organic connection through shared discovery and physical adventure.
“Corporates (usually lean towards) our Industrial Relics and Secrets of the Streets trails. The Industrial Relics tour, in particular, is an experience in itself. You’re hiking through forests, scaling metal stairs in an old lubricant plant, and going underground into a WWII air-raid shelter via a ladder,” Cheong shared with TTGmice.
According to the founders, these physical challenges naturally facilitate team bonding. “That’s the part where you actually have to help your boss,” Cheah said with a laugh. “It gets people down and dirty in a way that breaks down workplace hierarchies.”
The tours are highly customisable, allowing the content to be focused on specific corporate objectives, such as sustainability observed through industrial evolution, or leadership and resilience tested through physical navigation.
To drive engagement, Hidden Heritage’s tours are often interjected with gamified elements like scavenger hunts and ‘floor-is-lava’ challenges, with the option to include hands-on workshops such as traditional tile painting or towel making.
“For larger organisations, we can also arrange full-day leadership outings that include point-to-point transportation and curated F&B segments,” Cheah said. Such F&B segments will be heavily punctuated by local flavours – from sampling heritage cakes at decades-old bakeries to trying street food popular within the migrant worker community.
Cheah emphasised that the goal for these corporate outings is to move beyond the city’s polished exterior, allowing teams to connect with the authentic livelihoods and traditions that define Singapore’s heritage.
While Hidden Heritage typically caters to groups of 15 to 20 pax, they can accommodate up to 60 people by splitting sessions to preserve the intimacy of the storytelling. Costs scale accordingly based on the duration and specific requirements of the tour.
