How a Sightseeing App Helped the Downtown Carleton Place BIA Create a Hit Self-Guided Tour

The Downtown Carleton Place BIA, like many small town Business Improvement Areas, faced a familiar challenge: how to bring forgotten stories back to life and drive foot traffic back to the town centre.

Their solution? A self-guided, story-rich scavenger hunt powered by Driftscape’s sightseeing app.

Here's how this destination used a digital tour to achieve remarkable visitor engagement, and what your destination marketing organization (DMO), Business Improvement Area (BIA), or museum can learn from it.

The Problem: Forgotten History, Missed Opportunities

The town had a hidden gem that most locals had forgotten: renowned children’s author Charles Leslie McFarlane, the creator of the iconic Hardy Boys books. With plans to unveil a historical plaque in his honour, the question became: How can we further celebrate this event to draw both locals and visitors to our heritage sites? The town needed a high-impact, low-lift way to connect history with discovery.

The Sightseeing App Solution: Storytelling Meets Technology

Using the Driftscape platform, the town launched a self-guided scavenger hunt that reimagined McFarlane’s world through a heritage-inspired digital tour. The entire experience mimicked the style of a Hardy Boys mystery: each clue and location drew the visitor deeper into a compelling local story that started with curiosity and ended in discovery.

Using Driftscape’s web-based platform (no app downloads required), the Downtown Carleton Place BIA created an interactive map layered with key features for visitor engagement:

• Vintage-style illustrations inspired by the Hardy Boys book covers.

• QR code signage at each stop to guide users and add physical visibility.

• A tour finale at the local library, complete with the commemorative plaque.

What the Downtown Carleton Place BIA Achieved with This Digital Tour

The results demonstrated the power of smart tourism tools for driving visitor engagement:

• 1,300+ people completed the tour in just over a month.

• Local schools integrated the digital tour into field trips and educational programs.

• Residents and tourists praised the creative use of local history and technology.

• No additional staff were needed to maintain or run the experience.

• Quick content updates and easy expansion through the Driftscape dashboard ensured sustainability.

Key Takeaway: By tapping into an authentic local story and framing it as an engaging digital mystery, the Downtown Carleton Place BIA turned a simple plaque dedication into a community-wide event that significantly boosted foot traffic.

What Made This Self-Guided Tour Model Work

Several factors contributed to the success of this map-based tour:

• Low-Lift, High-Impact: The Downtown Carleton Place BIA team could launch quickly with minimal effort thanks to Driftscape’s intuitive, no-code tools.

• Engaging Narrative: The tour tapped into a familiar fictional world to attract audiences across various age groups, demonstrating effective content design.

• Community Buy-in: Schools, libraries, and locals participated, helping to share and promote the digital experience, amplifying its success.

• Measurable Impact: Built-in analytics provided DMOs with hard data to show community engagement and return on investment.
  

The Clue Board found digitally and printed at each tour stop

How Your Destination Can Apply This Self-Guided Tour Model

Looking to replicate this kind of success in visitor engagement?

Here’s how your tourism group, BIA, or museum can adapt the approach using a sightseeing app:

• Identify a Local Story, Legend, or Theme: No historical figures? No problem. Driftscape tours work well showcasing shops, farms, markets, events, and holiday themes (a "Sweet Treat Tour" is always a hit).

• Use Driftscape to Build a Self-Guided Walking Tour or Scavenger Hunt: Setting up a tour is quick and requires no technical skills. We'll guide you along the way to launch your first digital experience.

• Add QR Signage for Physical Visibility and Easy Navigation: Putting up posters with a QR code that links directly to your digital tour makes it easy for visitors to get up and running. They scan and start exploring; no sign-up is required to begin.

• Engage Schools and Local Organizations to Help Share and Promote: Digital-based education tours can be a fun way to capture kids' attention. Engaging community organizations, local businesses, and news outlets can get the word out for your campaign.

• Pro Tip: Do a coffee chat to show local businesses and their employees how the tour works. They, in turn, can show visitors how to access the experience, making them local ambassadors.

• Use Analytics to Evaluate Engagement and Optimize Content: In-depth analytics show you how many people are visiting your sites, which ones are popular, and which ones may need adjusting. All analytics are anonymous, respecting visitor privacy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What is a self-guided sightseeing app?

A: A self-guided sightseeing app, like Driftscape, is a map-based digital platform that allows destinations (DMOs, BIAs, etc.) to create interactive walking tours, scavenger hunts, and heritage trails. These tours use a visitor’s location to trigger content, stories, and information points, allowing the user to explore at their own pace without needing a human guide. This is a key tool for smart tourism.

Q: How does a sightseeing app help DMOs boost foot traffic?

A: By creating a structured, engaging digital tour, DMOs provide a clear reason for visitors to follow a specific route through a town or district. The use of QR codes in the physical environment links the digital map to the real world, guiding visitors to specific attractions, heritage sites, and local businesses. This direct guidance increases dwell time and funnels visitors to areas they might otherwise miss.

Q: Is technical expertise required to build a digital tour with Driftscape?

A: No, the Driftscape platform is designed to be user-friendly with a no-code content management system. This intuitive dashboard allows staff with minimal technical experience to quickly upload text, images, and audio, plot points on a map, and publish a professional, self-guided tour. The focus is on storytelling, not on complex programming or design.

Q: Can a digital tour be used for education or for local residents?

A: Yes, digital tours are highly effective for both tourism and local education. The Downtown Carleton Place BIA successfully integrated their Hardy Boys mystery tour into school field trips. Furthermore, such tours often reveal "forgotten history" to long-time residents, fostering a deeper sense of community pride and local engagement.

Q: How do I measure the success of a self-guided tour?

A: The Driftscape platform includes built-in, anonymous analytics that provide key metrics. You can see the number of tour completions, how many people visited each stop, and which stops were most popular. This data is crucial for DMOs to evaluate visitor engagement, demonstrate the value of the program, and optimize the content for future iterations.

Q: What kind of content works best for a self-guided tour?

A: The most successful content combines authentic local storytelling with compelling themes. This can include historical figures, haunted legends, architecture tours, public art walks, or themed food/beverage trails. The goal is to turn factual information into a narrative-driven, discovery-based experience that encourages users to keep moving to the next point on the map.

Final Takeaway

The Downtown Carleton Place BIA proves what’s possible when digital tools meet authentic storytelling. For destinations seeking high visitor engagement with limited staff or budgets, the Driftscape sightseeing app offers a practical, high-impact solution for creating compelling, self-guided tours.

Ready to bring your town’s story to life and boost your foot traffic?

Book a demo now and explore how Driftscape’s map-based tours can help you build experiences that engage, educate, and drive discovery.