Old-school guided tours transformed by new technology

Growing up, my family vacations always included walking tours. We’d meet our guide in the bright red T-shirt/with the yellow umbrella/carrying the giant purple stick. They’d tour us around a city, shouting at the top of their lungs to our herd, always with their neon object letting us know they were never far away.

Of course you’ll still find these kinds of old-school excursions; however, advancing technology and the desire for more local-feeling experiences has led to new breeds of tours.

The sharing economy

The sharing economy is huge in travel, and the concept has influenced the way we book sightseeing. One example is MeetnGreetMe, which allows locals ranging from passionate natives to shopping assistants to hotel concierges and beyond to list over 40 services, like showing visitors around the city and meeting them upon arrival.

“We are observing a great shift in travelers' mindset and that is the desire to ‘feel like a local’ rather than ‘being a tourist,’” notes MeetnGreetMe CEO and founder Elena Shkarubo. “For instance, you can look at the Eiffel Tower and see one of the famous tourist attractions everyone must see. Or, looking at the Eiffel Tower, you can see a place where a story of great love between two Parisians has started, followed by their family traditions, favorite cafes to celebrate their anniversaries and the recipe of the most delicious croissants with strawberry jam.”

Sightseeing apps

Then there are those sharing economy services where you never even meet your guide, instead letting your smartphone show you around. Instead of clunky museum headsets you’ll use your own headphones via maps-paired apps like Detour and Pocket Guide, which offer themed location-based tours for typically $5-$15. These apps also help you save money because instead of paying a guide for their time, you’re paying into a service where money is essentially pooled (i.e. you may be the 100th person to download that West Village Dessert Crawl tour, and the creator of the tour didn’t have to show people around 100 times).

To weave a challenge in with your sightseeing, Strayboots offers “mobile scavenger hunts” ($4.99 to $11.99) in more than 40 cities. You can choose to compete with fellow travelers or do an individual hunt which challenges you through trivia and missions to earn points. After each task, you get information about the stop — basically a game-ified tour you don’t need a reservation for.

Enhanced audio tours

But it’s not just the sharing economy changing the sightseeing tour landscape. It’s technology. As stated above, people don’t want to just see, they want to experience. Sean Lentner, CTO at Antenna, which produces high-tech audio tours for cultural institutions like the Statue of Liberty and the Museum of Modern Art, notes technology can add an immersive and engaging twist to the traditional tour.

Talking about museum audio tours, Lentner notes, “As the use of smartphones and wearable devices continues to proliferate and wireless networks rapidly advance, today’s curators are no longer tethered to radio waves, or anchored to bulky devices … For example, in April, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art re-opened to the public and introduced an iPhone app that features a series of audio tours that can auto-adjust the storytelling content based on where the visitor wanders. iBeacons installed throughout the building allow the app to tell visitors where they are.”

Augmented reality

Augmented reality is one technology popping up more frequently, bringing reality and the computer-generated world together. Joanan Hernandez is the founder of the Terra Icons app, which displays points of interest in augmented reality, similar to Pokemon Go. He explains, “These points of interest can be landmarks or metro stations. By using augmented reality as our base medium, the user avoids using a map, which is complex to follow, especially in an unknown place.”

Montreal en Histoires is another app making use of augmented reality. Imagine wandering Montreal, a city with structures dating back to the 17th century, as your guide talks about the rich history surrounding you. But you don’t just hear about the past, you see it through the app — when you hold your iPad in front of a particular attraction, you’re shown moving scenes from past time periods for a more immersive experience.

Technology for good

This increase in technology is not only interesting for travelers, but also those with handicaps preventing them for experiencing the details of their surroundings. Montreal’s McGill University students have recently developed a hands- and “eyes-free” smartphone app, Autour. This tools helps the visually impaired and blind by merging Google Maps with additional sound information, like a voice telling you a particular restaurant is 22 meters to your front left, or beeping sounds letting you know how close you are to a point of interest.

Tools like virtual reality can also help those who can’t travel at all, whether due to physical handicaps or lack of funds. For example, immersive content media company, StoryUp, recently launched an Honor Everywhere program to help elderly World War II veterans who are unable to travel to the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C. ,“visit” via virtual reality goggles. The average age of WWII vets is 85, and about 500 die per day, never getting to see the homage paid to them for risking their lives for their country. Virtual reality is one tool opening up doors in the travel for good sphere.

Technology done right and what the future holds

So how can tour companies and cultural institutions make sure they don’t miss the mark when weaving in new technologies? Explains Lentner, “A 'heads up' mantra should always be used when developing a tour. Technology that creates a 'heads down' experience will detract and disengage the visitor very quickly. Way-finding is an amazing technology, but when implemented incorrectly the visitor can become quickly distracted.”

Speaking about the not-so-distant future, he also believes technology in tour guiding will continue to grow to the point where people will see wearables speaking to other wearables. “Think of a museum-issued lanyard that syncs with your iWatch or other mobile device in order to provide a richer, more personalized experience.  We’ll also begin to see wearables become more closely integrated with social media, allowing people to share their experience and express thoughts or opinions without even using their hands.”