How Foley Main Street Turned Existing Downtown Programs into Over 200 Verified Check-Ins
October 2, 2026
Getting More From Existing Downtown Programs
Foley Main Street already gave residents and visitors several reasons to explore downtown. Its programming included monthly Third Thursday events, seasonal promotions and a self-guided historic walking tour.
Each program was managed separately. The historic tour also relied on physical beacons, which required staff to visit locations and maintain the hardware.
Foley wanted one system that could support its existing programs, make participation easier and give local businesses a more active role throughout the year.
One Digital Passport for Events, Tours and Local Businesses
Foley Main Street launched the Downtown Foley Passport in June 2026. It brought recurring events, year-round experiences and short seasonal campaigns into one mobile-friendly experience.
Visitors could open the passport through a web link or QR code, choose an experience and collect points at participating locations. The points could be exchanged for Downtown Foley merchandise, Cat Alley items and gift certificates from local businesses.
Foley used the passport to support several types of programming:
Third Thursday: More than 15 downtown businesses became points-earning stops during Foley’s monthly shop-local event.
Downtown Foley Historic Tour: Visitors could explore local history and architecture at their own pace while earning points at each stop.
American Classics Food Tour: A 28-day summer tour encouraged people to visit restaurants serving familiar American favourites.
Tropical Gnome Hunt: A month-long scavenger hunt sent participants to six downtown locations for the chance to win a $100 Downtown Foley gift card.
Getting More From Existing Downtown Programs
Foley Main Street already gave residents and visitors several reasons to explore downtown. Its programming included monthly Third Thursday events, seasonal promotions and a self-guided historic walking tour.
Each program was managed separately. The historic tour also relied on physical beacons, which required staff to visit locations and maintain the hardware.
Foley wanted one system that could support its existing programs, make participation easier and give local businesses a more active role throughout the year.
One Digital Passport for Events, Tours and Local Businesses
Foley Main Street launched the Downtown Foley Passport in June 2026. It brought recurring events, year-round experiences and short seasonal campaigns into one mobile-friendly experience.
Visitors could open the passport through a web link or QR code, choose an experience and collect points at participating locations. The points could be exchanged for Downtown Foley merchandise, Cat Alley items and gift certificates from local businesses.
Foley used the passport to support several types of programming:
Third Thursday: More than 15 downtown businesses became points-earning stops during Foley’s monthly shop-local event.
Downtown Foley Historic Tour: Visitors could explore local history and architecture at their own pace while earning points at each stop.
American Classics Food Tour: A 28-day summer tour encouraged people to visit restaurants serving familiar American favourites.
Tropical Gnome Hunt: A month-long scavenger hunt sent participants to six downtown locations for the chance to win a $100 Downtown Foley gift card.
Making Each Campaign Easier to Launch and Manage
Driftscape gave Foley Main Street one place to manage its visitor content, business stops, check-ins, points and rewards.
The team could update participating businesses, introduce a seasonal scavenger hunt and keep the historic tour available without building a separate digital experience for every campaign. Replacing the Bluetooth beacons also reduced the need for on-site hardware maintenance.
The Downtown Foley Passport works through a phone browser, so Foley could link to it from event pages and promote it through QR codes. Location verification helped Foley confirm that participants had actually visited an eligible stop before collecting points or entering a contest.
1,891 On-Site Views and 221 Verified Check-Ins
From May 1 through September 27, 2026, Foley Main Street’s listings, tours and campaign content generated 1,891 on-site content views.
A view was recorded when someone opened content while within the required area. The figure measures content views rather than unique visitors.
Visitors also completed 221 location-verified point collections through the Downtown Foley Passport:
156 Third Thursday check-ins
32 Tropical Gnome Hunt collections
29 American Classics Food Tour collections
Third Thursday accounted for approximately 71% of all verified point collections, making Foley’s established monthly event the strongest source of passport activity during the reporting period.
The two highest weekly POI-view totals occurred in mid-June and mid-July, during Foley’s first summer passport campaigns.
The Tropical Gnome Hunt recorded 18 verified contest entries from six participants between July 16 and August 12. All 18 entries were verified at their assigned downtown locations.
Starting With an Event People Already Knew
Third Thursday gave Foley Main Street a practical way to introduce the passport. Residents already knew the event, businesses were accustomed to participating and new themes could be added each month.
The historic tour remained available between events, while experiences such as the American Classics Food Tour and Tropical Gnome Hunt gave people timely reasons to explore different stops.
Foley could change the businesses, theme and reward without rebuilding the underlying program. This made the passport useful for recurring events as well as shorter seasonal campaigns.
“I was really excited to see how the food tour went, and I was really excited to see how our historic tour went. We’re going to continue to build it… it’s going to grow”
— Darrelyn Dunmore, Executive Director, Foley Main Street
What Tourism and Downtown Teams Can Learn From Foley
Start with an established event. Foley used Third Thursday to introduce the passport through a program that residents and businesses already recognized.
Measure what people actually do. Content views, verified check-ins, and contest entries gave Foley more useful information than a general engagement total.
Create reasons to visit several locations. Tours, points and scavenger-hunt clues encouraged people to move between participating stops.
Reuse the same program structure. Foley could introduce new themes and business partners without starting from scratch each time.
Keep rewards connected to the community. Local gift certificates and Downtown Foley merchandise directed the value of the program back into downtown.
Bring Your Downtown Programs Together
Already running tours, shop-local events or seasonal promotions? Driftscape can connect them together in one digital experience, giving people more reasons to explore while making participation easier to join.