tour guide app have a lot to complain about. Whether it's the option of safe legal convenient pick up/ disappear areas, unlicensed Guides working without consequences, or even a respectable minimum rate of pay that's followed by all, you can find Guides sharing their thoughts and planning on how to solve the complaints.
It's interesting to notice that one of the direst topics isn't getting much press. Are local Guides becoming obsolete? I am not talking about the old debate of Tour Managers doing the job of a nearby Guide. I am talking about something that may have a much greater impact on the Guiding landscape. Electronic Guides. Today's city guide apps for smartphones are gaining in popularity as smartphone usage grows. They are cheaper than a live Tour Guide. They pause when we should take a photo. They will endlessly repeat themselves when we didn't hear the commentary within the horns of traffic. They are never overbooked and are available exactly once the clients want the information.
Imagine in the event that you, as a Guide, had to contend with someone who'd those characteristics. It's obvious that individuals would be regarded as inferior. But since this competitor is an accumulation of computer programs, we maintain the one key advantage, we are alive. Nothing can beat a live, entertaining, knowledgeable, professional local Guide showing you around their beloved city. Or will it?
Today's electronic city guides are GPS based and automatically tell you about your present location. They enable you to see and save a map of one's tour, add photos, travel videos and notes. All this can then be immediately shared with friends via social media. You can also plan out your personal customized tour based upon your fitness level, specific dates, and interests or download one of the growing amount of quality tours right to your iPad. When you have a question that's not part of one's electronic tour, you can pause it, then Google your question. Do you want recommendations regarding which cafe in the square has the best cappuccino? Obviously you can ask your live Tour Guide. Otherwise an online cafe search will yield ratings with comments left by your fellow travelers. Did I mention that such a search could also yield coupons or special offers?
An electric city guide is another avenue to satisfy a travelers hunger for knowledge. These apps are increasingly becoming integrated with the mechanics of traveling. Today, if we should know a train schedule, or opening time of a museum, or what're the museums special exhibits, we turn to our smart phones. So it's natural that the industry has sprung up to help guide the modern traveler. One interesting part with this new industry is that some of the greatest touring apps are tours created by those professionals with the best knowledge, namely, local Guides.
There are numerous opportunities that may come about from Guides sharing their knowledge to make a City Guide app. These range between commissions to branding rights. Local Guides might create a couple of hundred dollars touring a group while simultaneously earning another few hundred or thousand from the download commissions of those travelers touring around listening in their mind on an iPhone. When all cities have guiding apps, then the competition over which app is way better for the customer really heats up. App providers may tout the credentials of the creator of the tour, with links to the Tour Guide's site. Or apps could find their information from local university professors or armchair Tour Guides commentary system. Hundreds of 1000s of these tours happen to be being downloaded monthly in cities around the world. This will only increase as the town guide app industry evolves and further integrates itself to the hand, mind and pockets of travelers. What role does the professional Tour Guide play in this growing industry? Will the Tour Guides of the future be complaining that the information in the apps originated in amateurs? Or will we use our share our knowledge and see this as a revenue making opportunity?
If you may not know what's coming, then you are destined to answer the results of a situation. My advice would be to understand how the competitive landscape is changing and arrange for your personal success. That is only one small topic being covered in my lecture "Guiding in the Digital Age ".If you cannot make it to the World Guide Summit to hear it live, you can of course watch the video of my lecture in your smart phone. But be forewarned, I is only going to be answering questions from those in attendance. There is still good results to interacting to a live Guide.
