Hello Voice Map.
Due to the increasing incidences of a second wave of covid-19 infections, and in my own city which is now experiencing asecond and local lockdown, the selling of the tours to be played on a continuous play basis as an alternative to real tours or as introductions to the relevant cities before people visit is an area I would like to explore further.
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Thanks for starting this off @djjdouglas. Your post is the first by a publisher on this forum!
I know a number of other publishers are thinking about how to position their tours as both useful for using on site – as walks or drives, etc. – and more virtual experiences, like audio books or podcasts with photos and a map. And our start screen has the Continuous Play button for exactly this reason. (There’s a blog post describing why using them both ways makes sense over on our blog.)
I think dual use creates additional value for users: they can buy a tour to listen to at home now, but then also do the tour at a later stage, whether they have a visit scheduled already and they’re planning the details or they’re just curious and might only get to the destination years from now. They can also listen to the tour after their visit, which makes the tour a kind of memorabilia.
We’re working to convert your Viator listing to emphasise that the tour can be done virtually. Then we’ll submit it for inclusion in Viator’s curated list of virtual tours.
But I’m more interested in what new distribution channels this might open up. If we can sell the tours as audio books, using coupons, we might reach new markets and this is something that will outlast lockdowns and COVID-19. I’m doing some research on these and will let you know what I find.
Hello David & Iain!
I think I am odd-person out because I was actually targeting the armchair traveler even before COVID arrived as a factor. I don’t think that this impacted my script writing at all, I chose the words to be relevant for any type of listener. But I do agree with Iain that the marketing target can be greatly expanded if the focus is removed from the on-site listening.
But I have to say that marketing in general is a weakness of mine. Not in willingness to try, but in knowledge as to how. I’ve been focused on my social media platforms as a way to advertise. I don’t really know how else to go about it. So while I’m in complete agreement about stretching perceptions of the tour usage to highlight off-site listening, I honestly have no idea how to use that in marketing.
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Hello Amy and Iain,
Yes I have followed the same principle in that I try to make my scripts relevant to both types of listener too, obviously with the exception of directions.
I like the idea of the tours being marketed as introductions to places before you visit - personally I like to be well prepared and I enjoy visits more where I have researched first - though I know some people like to be more spontaneous.
The memorabilia aspect might also be an angle too - I might send a link to some of my real tour customers who have sent me positive feedback to see if they are interested.
Obviously the COVID-19 is still a big problem for our industry so virtual tours are likely to be an important product for the short/medium term.
David
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I recorded my tours for on site experience, but why not also offer them to people virtually. I somehow thought that the continuous play would be accompanied by a google street view, but now I see it’s just at the starting point. How do we suggest people see what is being talked about? I can’t add images of places as many locations actually have maps/drawings attached to them already. Do I suggest perhaps following along on google street map if someone is really keen?
We’re going to add the option of uploading more than one photo to a location at some point, and this should help. But it’s difficult to build an interface equally well for both use case, i.e. for people who are doing the tour on site and for people using it virtually, probably at home.
I think that the web interface works better for this, partly because it has Streetview, and once your tour has been redeemed in app, it’s accessible on the web too, as long as the user is signed into the same account. You could also give them the url that includes the voucher code if they only want to use the tour this way.
Here’s a screenshot from your Dean Village tour with Streetview:
We’re also making improvements to how voucher codes work on the web and you can expect news about these soon.
I think the option to add more than one photo is good, especially for important locations.Initially I had added photos to all my locations on my tours to facilitate remote use, but that did cause problems with the size of the download files, so I scaled that back. My own experience so far is that the tours are more attractive for the on site guests and the purchase of them for remote use has been negligible - that saying its hard to make much sense of data during these strange lockdown times.
David Douglas - Derrie Danders Walking and Audio Tours.
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