Meet Mingwei, the visionary founder of Beyond Footprints, a bespoke travel agency in Singapore redefining what luxury travel means. With a passion for detail and discovery, Mingwei crafts tailor-made experiences that transcend generic itineraries, curating journeys that celebrate authenticity, sustainability, and immersive cultural exchange.
From wellness retreats in remote sanctuaries to high-touch wildlife safaris and global adventures, Beyond Footprints works closely with clients to create meaningful, transformative travel. Mingwei’s mission is clear—to turn every trip into a personal story worth remembering, where luxury meets purpose and every footprint leaves a lasting, positive impact.
What inspired you to start Beyond Footprints Travel SG, and how did your own travel experiences shape your vision for creating bespoke meaningful journeys?
Beyond Footprints Travel was born from a desire to help people travel better and deeper through customised private tours. Over the years, I’ve been incredibly lucky to explore many corners of the world, not just through the destinations themselves, but through the stories, people, and emotions that bring them to life.
Somewhere along the way, I realised that luxury travel today has evolved. It’s no longer just about five-star hotels, Michelin-starred dining, or bucket-list bragging rights. It’s about access, connection, and transformation. It’s about moments that move you and make you see the world and yourself differently.
That’s really the essence of Beyond Footprints. We design journeys that make you feel. Maybe it’s sitting down to a meal cooked by a local chef preserving a family recipe, sharing an honest conversation with an artisan who’s keeping a dying craft alive, or simply pausing in nature and realising how little you need to feel fulfilled.
True luxury today is personal. It’s emotional. It’s about meaning and that’s what we try to create in every journey.
You often say, “It’s the journey that matters.” Can you recall a personal travel moment that truly changed how you see the world or yourself?
One journey that truly changed me was my first trip to the African continent — to Kenya and Tanzania. It was both humbling and uplifting, and it stirred something deep within me.
Beyond the childhood dream of seeing wildlife up close, I witnessed the immense effort that goes into protecting the wilderness, from conservationists working tirelessly to safeguard endangered species to local communities finding balance between their livelihoods and the land they depend on. It showed me how meaningful tourism, when done right, can sustain that delicate balance, benefiting nature, wildlife, and people together.
It made me realise that the incredible wildlife encounters we often take for granted — a pride of lions feasting after a hunt, or a herd of elephants moving silently through the plains with their young — aren’t just moments of luck. They continue to exist because of years of care, collaboration, and respect between humans and nature. That completely changed how I see travel and how we go about customising our tours.
Africa also taught me that the most powerful moments aren’t always the most dramatic. They’re often the quiet ones such as sitting around a campfire listening to a guide sharing stories about his beloved land, visiting a local village and seeing their joy in living in simplicity, or simply feeling the rhythm of life more intentionally.
Those are the moments that stay with you long after you’ve unpacked your bags — and they are exactly what we want our travellers to experience.
Stay curious, be adaptable, and keep moving forward — just like the wildlife in the African savannahs. They never give up; they evolve and flow with nature’s rhythm.
Beyond Footprints emphasises experiential and purposeful travel. How do you design trips that go beyond sightseeing to create deep emotional connections for travellers?
It always starts with understanding the traveller — their story, their values, and what truly excites them. Our planning process goes far beyond logistics, It’s about designing journeys that mean something to each individual.
For example, instead of a standard safari, we can customise our African safari packages to include experiences where friends or families can actually be part of conservation, such as setting up camera traps, joining guided bush walks, or learning how trackers read the land to identify wildlife movements. They can visit a local community to see how tourism supports livelihoods, before ending the day with a dramatic sunset drink out in the savannah.
These moments create opportunities for travellers to piece together their own discoveries and to form a personal story shaped by what moves them most. And that’s what makes every journey unique.
We also work closely with local experts, artisans, and guides who bring depth to every encounter, whether it’s hiking with a naturalist in the mountains learning about endemic flora and fauna, or enjoying a private tasting with a winemaker who’s preserving his family’s legacy. These stories add heart and meaning that will turn a trip into something deeply personal and lasting.
The travel industry has faced major disruptions in recent years. What were the biggest challenges you encountered, and how did you keep your purpose alive through them?
The pandemic was definitely the toughest period. The world literally stood still, and travel just stopped. It forced me to pause and reflect on why Beyond Footprints existed, and what “luxury” really meant to our travellers.
Instead of trying to just get through it, I decided to rebuild with purpose. We focused on forming stronger partnerships, refining our values, and reimagining what travel could look like in a world that suddenly valued connection more than motion.
That period taught me that resilience isn’t about bouncing back; it’s about going forward — with clarity and intention.
Today, our team has grown not just in numbers, but in empathy and expertise. We understand more than ever that what travellers crave isn’t just luxury but purpose. They want meaningful, well-paced, and carefully curated experiences that speak to who they are.
As travel continues to evolve post-pandemic, what trends do you see shaping the future of experiential tourism?
Travellers today are seeking connection with nature, with people, and with themselves. They’re no longer satisfied with just picture-perfect moments; they want something real, something that stays with them.
I’m seeing a strong rise in slow travel, nature-based journeys, and experiences that align with personal values like sustainability and cultural respect. The future of travel is definitely more conscious where people want to know their travel choices are also doing good, not just feeling good.
In many ways, travellers themselves are redefining what luxury means. It’s no longer just about extravagance but it’s about purpose, inspiration, and growth. True luxury now lies in access to authenticity, to culture, to moments that enable personal transformation. This kind of experiential travel is difficult to create in mass tour packages as such experiences are curated, not generic tours you can book off a website, and that’s exactly where the true value of customised private tour packages lies.
If you could condense all of your biggest life lessons and summarise them into one formula, what would it be?
Stay curious, be adaptable, and keep moving forward — just like the wildlife in the African savannahs. They never give up; they evolve and flow with nature’s rhythm.
And perhaps the biggest difference between us and them is our ability to show kindness. That mix of curiosity, adaptability, and kindness has become my compass both in travel and in life.
What’s your vision for Singapore’s travel industry in the next five years?
I see Singapore’s travel scene evolving toward more multi-generational journeys, where families travel together, not just to see the world, but to share experiences that bring them closer. I also see a growing appetite for private, personalised travel over big group tours, where travellers have the freedom to move at their own pace.
And most importantly, I believe Singaporeans will increasingly seek out conscious, meaningful travel — experiences that not only create memories, but also make a positive difference to the communities and environments they touch.
If you could have a superpower for one day, what would it be and why?
I’d love the ability to pause time, to really savour moments just a little longer. But if I could be greedy, I’d choose teleportation too. Imagine hopping from the savannahs of the Serengeti to the mountains of the Andes in Peru in a heartbeat. That would be the ultimate travel hack!
Connect with Mingwei: BeyondFootprints and Instagram.
