Overview: Travel entrepreneur redefining modern travel experiences through community, wellness, hobbies, and meaningful cultural connections rather than traditional sightseeing alone.
Industry: Travel & Hospitality / Wellness Travel
Professional Experience: Derek has experience in travel operations, tour management, customer service, sales, marketing, and community-driven travel experiences. Through Around The Corner, he organises hobby-based and wellness-focused travel experiences including cycling tours, pickleball trips, photography journeys, and nature experiences.
About him: Derek Yap is a Singapore-based travel entrepreneur and founder of Around The Corner, a travel platform focused on creating meaningful and emotionally memorable travel experiences. Rather than building itineraries around landmarks alone, Derek believes people remember how a journey made them feel and the relationships formed along the way.
Passionate about community-building, wellness, and shared hobbies, he integrates activities such as cycling, pickleball, wellness retreats, and cultural exchanges into his travel experiences. His goal is to help travellers slow down, reconnect with themselves, and build authentic human connections in an increasingly fast-paced and technology-driven world.
Turning point: A major turning point came when Derek recognised that many travellers were no longer looking purely for sightseeing but were instead searching for deeper experiences centred around wellness, hobbies, reflection, and community.
Entering the travel industry after the pandemic with little prior experience, he learned the business hands-on by personally managing tours and operations himself. This experience inspired him to differentiate Around The Corner by focusing on passion-based and community-driven travel experiences rather than conventional tour packages.
What he does now: Derek leads Around The Corner, where he organises experiential travel programmes focused on wellness, cycling, pickleball, photography, food, and cultural immersion. He is especially known for bringing Singapore pickleball communities overseas to connect with local players in destinations such as Mongolia and Kunming, China.
Beyond travel logistics, Derek focuses heavily on creating meaningful friendships, authentic exchanges, and emotionally enriching travel experiences for participants.
SGVisionaries interview: Meet Derek Yap: Building Meaningful Travel Experiences Through Community, Wellness, and Shared Passions
LinkedIn profile: Derek Yap LinkedIn profile
Website: Around The Corner
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