Boost Visitor Engagement: Creative Ideas for Destination Marketing in 2025

Engage visitors this Summer with Driftscape's Self-Guided Tours

Authentic, Connected, and Interactive Experiences: Boosting Visitor Engagement

Boosting visitor engagement is a consistent challenge for tourism professionals today. As visitors increasingly rely on their screens for information, destinations, events, museums, and historic neighbourhoods must find effective ways to bridge the digital and physical worlds. Engaging visitors meaningfully requires immersive digital solutions. However, it takes more than a basic map; visitors need to experience your destination authentically, interactively, and emotionally.

By creating digital experiences that reflect your place's unique identity, visitors form lasting connections with your culture, businesses, and history. This process leads to higher engagement, increased foot traffic, and repeat visits. This is essential for modern destination marketing.

Interactive Mobile-Based Tours: Authentic Visitor Engagement

Visitors crave authentic experiences. They engage more deeply when destinations highlight their unique characteristics and quirks. Want visitors to engage more deeply? Simply be yourself.

Find the things that make your destination unique. Embrace what makes your place different, and the quirkier the better!

Self-guided tours are the perfect way to curate an exploration of all the stories, locations, and hidden gems your destination offers. Visitors simply go to your tour's starting location and then set out on their journey.

The best self-guided tours, like those offered by Driftscape, include rich media such as audio tours, video, imagery, and even hands-free mode. This allows for safe cycling, driving, and exploring without constantly looking at a screen.

• Flexible & Accessible: Visitors explore at their own pace, anytime and anywhere.

• Hyper-local Experiences: Self-guided tours help visitors discover hidden gems, local businesses, and cultural stories.

• Gamification Elements: Scavenger hunts and interactive challenges encourage deeper visitor engagement and movement throughout your destination.

Key Takeaway: Authentic storytelling through map-based tours leads to deeper connections and a more memorable visitor experience.

Success Stories Highlighting Authentic Engagement

• North Bay, ON: A Film Location Tour celebrating its status as a top destination for holiday movies boosted foot traffic and local business visits.

• North Perth, ON: Operation Leprechaun Hunt, a seasonal gamified experience, engaged visitors by encouraging them to discover hidden digital Leprechauns throughout the downtown core.

Gamified Tourism Experiences: Encourage Deeper Engagement

Gamification isn’t just for apps—it’s a powerful way to connect visitors with destinations and extend engagement beyond a single visit. It transforms simple exploration into an interactive adventure.

Gamification Ideas for Destinations:

Gamification Idea	Objective
Contests	Let visitors vote for “The Best Ice Cream in Town.”
Scavenger Hunts	Create themed hunts that lead visitors through key attractions.
Augmented Reality Quests	Offer interactive experiences through AR-enhanced storytelling.
Points & Rewards	Encourage check-ins at businesses to earn discounts and exclusive offers.

Gamification is effective because it:

1. Encourages repeat visits by easily re-theming experiences for different seasons (e.g., Summer Challenge → Halloween Trick-or-Treat Quest).

2. Creates memorable, shareable moments that visitors spread via word-of-mouth and social media.

3. Makes exploration fun, engaging, and rewarding, increasing time spent in your destination.

AI-Powered Business Directories: Supporting Local Businesses

Business directories are a must-have tool for BIAs, BIDs, and Chambers of Commerce. While Google provides a broad search, it doesn’t always highlight the local businesses that make your destination unique. A high-quality directory can showcase all of your businesses and provide customization to entice visitors to hop in the shop!

Why AI-Powered Directories Are Essential for Visitor Engagement:

• No Manual Updates Needed: AI automatically updates business listings, reducing upkeep time and costs associated with maintaining up-to-date information.

• Enhanced Visibility for Local Shops & Restaurants: Visitors easily find what they need without relying on third-party third-party platforms.

• Integrated with Tours & Gamification: Seamlessly pair business directories with interactive maps and engagement tools.

Driftscape’s AI-powered Business Directory (AiBD) simplifies business promotion by automatically gathering and maintaining local business information, saving hours of manual updates and allowing DMOs to focus on strategy.

Smart Notifications: Increase Engagement On-Site

Smart notifications are a powerful tool to drive real-time visitor engagement. Visitors can receive exclusive, location-based content as they explore your destination.

How Smart Notifications Improve Visitor Experience:

• Instant Updates: Notify visitors about nearby attractions, events, discounts, or alerts (e.g., road closures or weather conditions).

• Personalized Experiences: Offer special perks or relevant history when visitors arrive at specific locations.

• Real-time Navigation Assistance: Direct visitors to featured spots via interactive maps.

Bridge the Gap Between Digital & Physical Tourism

Early digital planning leads to higher foot traffic, engagement, and return visits during peak travel season. Modern destination marketing requires tools that can seamlessly blend digital content with the physical environment.

Driftscape provides all-in-one visitor engagement tools co-created with DMOs and LBAs to boost foot traffic, enhance local business visibility, and create immersive visitor experiences. With Driftscape, setting up self-guided tours, scavenger hunts, and AI-powered business directories is quick and effortless. Plus, our analytics tools track visitor interactions, helping you refine and improve your strategies for long-term success and continued growth in visitor engagement. See how Destination Canada focuses on digital tools to enhance the overall tourism experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is visitor engagement in the context of tourism?

A: Visitor engagement in tourism is how deeply a visitor interacts with a destination's content, attractions, and businesses. High engagement means visitors are spending more time exploring, participating in activities, and forming memorable connections with the place. This often leads to increased foot traffic and positive word-of-mouth promotion for the destination.

Q: How do self-guided mobile tours boost visitor engagement?

A: Self-guided tours boost engagement by putting visitors in control of their experience. They can explore at their own pace and discover hidden gems through rich, interactive content like audio, video, and text. This flexibility and the ability to find authentic, local stories make the exploration fun, personal, and much more engaging than a standard map or pre-scheduled tour.

Q: Can gamification really be used for destination marketing?

A: Yes, gamification is a highly effective destination marketing strategy. By introducing elements like scavenger hunts, points, and rewards, destinations can motivate visitors to explore specific areas, check in at local businesses, and return for new seasonal challenges. This makes exploration fun and memorable, significantly increasing time spent in the area.

Q: What is an AI-Powered Business Directory and why is it essential?

A: An AI-Powered Business Directory automatically gathers, updates, and maintains local business information, saving DMOs significant time and effort. It is essential because it provides visitors with an accurate, hyper-local listing of shops and restaurants, enhancing local business visibility and encouraging visitors to support the local economy directly.

Q: What is the primary benefit of using Smart Notifications for visitor engagement?

A: The primary benefit is real-time, location-specific relevance. As visitors move through a destination, Smart Notifications can instantly deliver alerts about nearby attractions, special events, or exclusive discounts. This real-time, personalized interaction drives immediate engagement and enhances the visitor experience right where they are.

Q: What kind of content makes a self-guided tour "authentic"?

A: Authentic content focuses on the unique, local stories and history of a place, going beyond typical tourist landmarks. This includes highlighting quirky local businesses, sharing the history of a specific neighbourhood, or featuring local voices. It’s about being genuine and celebrating the unique character of the destination.

Q: How does Driftscape help DMOs track the success of their engagement initiatives?

A: Driftscape includes comprehensive analytics tools that track visitor interactions with tours, scavenger hunts, and other digital content. These tools provide DMOs with valuable data on popular locations and engagement rates, allowing them to refine their strategies, improve content, and ultimately maximize their investment in visitor engagement.

Get Your Destination Ready for Success!

Book a demo and discover Driftscape's innovative digital tools can transform your visitor engagement strategy.