See How These Communities Use Driftscape to Boost Visitor Engagement

What do a coastal town in Alaska, a quiet Ontario village, and a French-speaking prairie region have in common?

They are all using the Driftscape platform to transform local stories into memorable visitor experiences. By leveraging smart tourism tools like self-guided audio tours and gamified scavenger hunts, these communities prove that you don't need a huge budget to make a big impact on visitor engagement and dispersal.

Here is how destination marketing organizations (DMOs), BIAs, and tourism professionals are using our map-based tours to achieve measurable results.

Downtown Carleton Place: A Mystery Tour That Sparked Local Pride

For the Downtown Carleton Place BIA, the town's heritage and literary roots came alive through a unique, Hardy Boys-themed scavenger hunt. Inspired by Charles Leslie McFarlane, long-time ghostwriter for the Hardy Boys series, the town launched a story-rich walking tour powered by Driftscape.

Visitors followed digital clues across murals, landmarks, and quirky small-town corners, unlocking local history as they progressed. The low-cost, high-engagement campaign drew in over 1,300 completions in just 30 days, many from local schools and families. The campaign demonstrated how to revive local pride and turn quiet corners into story-rich attractions.

Key Takeaway: Gamified tours are a powerful tool for youth attraction and educational tourism, transforming history into an adventure. Read more about using gamification to boost tourism.

Bruce County: Rewards Turn Exploration into a Regional Event

Bruce County went beyond a simple tour by creating a full regional game board. Their campaign, Explore the Bruce Rewards, used the Driftscape platform to let visitors unlock stickers, branded swag, and digital points by checking in at locations across the county.

This initiative drew over 18,000 visits, earned a national tourism award, and achieved significant regional dispersal without requiring added staff. The strategy successfully boosted local business traffic and transformed passive sightseeing into a playful challenge. This case shows how technology can support robust rewards and loyalty programs.

Wikwemikong: Celebrating Indigenous Culture and Accessibility

On Manitoulin Island, Wikwemikong Tourism uses Driftscape to share their community's deep cultural history. Their self-guided tours are a blend of language, story, and place, giving users an authentic, respectful experience with every step. This initiative highlights the platform's ability to facilitate accessible and authentic Indigenous tourism experiences.

Sitka, Alaska: A Coastal Town Goes Offline to Boost Tourism

Located in a low-signal area, Visit Sitka needed a way to guide visitors without reliable Wi-Fi. With Driftscape's offline mode and AI-powered business directory, they now offer seamless exploration. Since launching, they have seen over 3,200 points-of-interest (POI) views and listed more than 100 local businesses through smart automation. This ensures a consistent visitor experience even in remote locations.

More Ways Communities Are Boosting Visitor Engagement with Driftscape

• Eastman Tourism: Used the app to build a discovery tool connecting visitors to waterfalls, trails, and local legends; making it easier to wander wisely through natural wonders.

• North Perth: Activated town-wide tours with 80+ local businesses during events like Paddyfest, creating an economic engine disguised as a community game.

• Blind River & Elliot Lake: These Northern Ontario towns use the platform to bring public art and local heritage to life. As one CAO put it, "It’s a tour guide in your pocket."

• Bonjour Manitoba: Launched a fully bilingual experience with support from CDEM, allowing visitors to explore francophone heritage in both official languages.

• Downtown Guelph & St. Marys: Replaced expensive, outdated paper brochures with immersive, GPS-powered heritage walking guides that live in the visitor’s pocket.

• Crescent Heights Village BIA (Calgary): Used gamified POIs and rewards to spotlight Asian-owned businesses, resulting in over 5,000 user interactions and significant savings on printing costs.

The Power of Smart Tourism Tools

These stories share powerful common threads: impact does not require a massive budget; local stories can become digital destinations; gamification works; offline tools are essential in remote places; and language access opens new doors.

Driftscape helps towns and tourism professionals do more to boost tourism with less. By providing tools for map-based tours, AR features, and visitor analytics, we help destinations make every visitor moment count.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do visitors need to download the app to use Driftscape tours?

A: No, they do not. App-shy visitors can easily use the features via a browser-based experience on their mobile devices. This provides maximum accessibility with no download required.

Q: What if our destination does not have much historic content?

A: That is no problem at all. Many of our partners successfully create tours around a variety of themes such as public art, local shopping, nature trails, or even annual festivals. Driftscape is a flexible platform designed for diverse interests; it is not just for history buffs.

Q: How difficult is it for a small DMO team to set up a new tour?

A: It is designed to be simple and efficient. Most communities can build and launch a basic, impactful tour in a day or two. Our dedicated support team provides step-by-step guidance to ensure a smooth and rapid implementation process.

Q: Is this a viable solution for small towns, BIAs, or museums with limited resources?

A: Absolutely. Driftscape is specifically designed to be an accessible, resource-limited solution. Many partners launch impactful experiences and measurable campaigns without needing large, dedicated budgets or added staff.

Q: What distinguishes Driftscape from general tools like Google Maps or TripAdvisor?

A: Driftscape is built specifically for tourism storytelling. It offers deep, interactive features like audio guides, location-based quests, Augmented Reality (AR) experiences, and provides essential visitor data insights. It is a full journey, not just directions.

Q: How does Driftscape help DMOs track visitor engagement?

A: The platform includes built-in visitor analytics and reporting tools. These allow DMOs to track check-ins, total views, tour completions, and dispersal patterns. This data provides valuable insight into which stories and locations are most effective at capturing attention.

Q: Can the tours be made available in multiple languages?

A: Yes. As shown by Bonjour Manitoba, the platform fully supports creating and deploying bilingual and multilingual experiences, including audio tours, to improve accessibility for diverse visitor segments.

Book a demo to see how you can turn your destination into a story worth walking through