How Walking Tours Can Support Local Shopfronts, Not Just Fill Streets

As a BIA manager, chamber director, or parks officer, you are likely looking for ways to bring more life (and more revenue) into your community. You already know the value of a high-quality walking tour for highlighting local history or hidden natural gems.

However, many destination leaders face a common challenge: a great tour might fill the sidewalks, but it doesn't always fill the shops. To create a truly immersive travel experience, those leisurely strolls should do more than show off the sights. They should help direct visitors toward your local cafes, boutiques, and attractions.

The Challenge: Turning Foot Traffic into Economic Impact

You have worked hard to create beautiful spaces, vibrant downtowns, and stunning trails. Yet, it is common for visitors to walk through, snap a few photos, and leave without engaging with the local economy. Connecting these visitors with the small businesses that serve as the lifeblood of your community can be difficult.

To foster authentic cultural tourism, you need a strategy that ensures walking traffic translates into meaningful engagement. The goal is to provide a narrative that naturally leads to a local stop, turning steps into support for your members.

The Transformation: An Engaging Local Business Guide App

Imagine a seamless experience where every historical marker or public art piece also subtly guides visitors toward a nearby bakery or unique service provider.

That is the potential of a modern local business guide app. It is more than just a digital map: it is a personalized guide delivered to a visitor’s smartphone. This type of tool can weave local stories together with real-time opportunities, helping visitors discover gems they might otherwise overlook.

Real-World Success: Downtown Guelph Business Association

I saw this firsthand with the Downtown Guelph Business Association. They wanted to extend the reach of their "Art on the Street" festival beyond the event date. Without a massive tech budget, they used Driftscape to create a self-guided tour that linked users to nearby shops and eateries. This turned a simple walk into an active discovery session. The specific tour saw over a 1000% increase in views, showing how digital tools can help amplify the visibility of a local business district.

Other Practical Examples:

• North Perth’s "Leprechaun Hunt": They used a self-guided tour app to gamify exploration, which encouraged families to visit local businesses in a fun, interactive way.

• Heritage Park Calgary: Canada’s largest living history museum partnered with Driftscape to digitize their "Once Upon A Christmas" event, providing a modern guide that helped thousands of visitors navigate the park's offerings.

• City of Thunder Bay: Their Haunted House Tour reached over 25,000 views, demonstrating that themed content can significantly increase the reach of a local tourism initiative.

How a Local Business Guide App Supports Your Community

Implementing a digital community walking tour tool can offer several practical benefits for your town or BIA:

• Direct Support for Merchants: Integrate businesses into tour stops with clickable links, special offers, and directions.

• Rich Visitor Context: Provide audio, video, and historical photos that deepen the visitor's connection to the area.

• Encouraging Longer Stays: Highlighting nearby points of interest can help visitors stay in your district longer.

• Guiding the Journey: Use digital "breadcrumbs" to lead visitors toward specific areas or shops they might miss on their own.

• Data-Driven Decisions: Track which stops are most popular to better understand visitor interests and improve future tours.

Pro Tip: Avoid treating a digital tour like a static brochure. To help drive foot traffic into stores, try ending a historical narrative with a suggestion for a nearby "modern" stop, such as a local coffee shop that has its own story to tell.

Quick-Start Checklist: Building a Business-Boosting Walking Tour

If you are ready to turn local knowledge into an economic driver, here is a practical checklist for using a local business guide app:

1. Define Your Tour's Purpose

• Goal Setting: Be clear about what you want visitors to do, whether it is spending money at local shops or learning about local heritage.

• Identify Your Audience: Tailor your content for your specific target (families, foodies, or history buffs) to ensure the experience feels relevant.

2. Select Locations and Partners

• Map the Route: Choose logical, walkable points. Ensure you include a healthy mix of landmarks and participating local businesses.

• Gather Content: Collect high-quality photos, brief descriptions, and crucial details like opening hours or a special "app-only" offer.

3. Integrate Local Businesses

• Direct Links: Ensure your tool allows you to link directly to business websites or social media pages.

• Exclusive Offers: Partner with merchants for small discounts. For example, the West Queen West BIA used a gift card promotion to encourage people to explore and engage.

• Location-Based Prompts: If your app supports it, use geo-fencing to send a subtle notification when a user is near a featured business.

4. Choose the Right Platform

• Prioritize Ease of Use: Look for a platform like Driftscape that offers a straightforward interface for content uploads. You want to spend your time on storytelling, not troubleshooting.

• Test the Experience: Walk the tour yourself. Check that the GPS triggers correctly and the narrative flows naturally from one stop to the next.

5. Promote and Measure

• Multi-Channel Promotion: Share your tour on social media and at local visitor centers.

• Analyze Results: Review the analytics to see which stops are popular. This data can help you refine the tour and prove value to your business members.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can a small BIA with limited staff manage a digital tour?

A: Yes. Modern local business guide apps are designed to be managed by small teams. If you can update a social media page, you can likely manage a digital tour. The right platform handles the technical maintenance so you can focus on the local content.

Q: How do I get local businesses to participate?

A: Focus on the value of targeted visibility. You are providing them with a direct line to visitors who are already standing in their neighborhood. Exclusive app-based offers are also a great way for businesses to see exactly how many people the tour is bringing through their doors.

Q: What if our town does not have famous landmarks?

A: You do not need world-famous monuments to create a successful tour. Often, visitors are looking for "hidden gems," local urban legends, or unique architecture. These local stories often provide a more authentic experience than a traditional sightseeing trip.

Conclusion: Empower Your Community's Storytellers

You have the ability to transform a simple walk into a dynamic experience that supports your local economy. A versatile local business guide app is not just about navigation: it is about connecting people with the heart of your town...its history, its people, and its unique shops.

Ready to see how a digital tour could work for your BIA or destination?

Book a demo to explore how Driftscape can help you bring your community's stories to life and drive local growth.

About the author: Andrew Applebaum is a digital tourism expert at Driftscape who helps destinations, BIAs, museums, and tourism teams create self-guided visitor experiences rooted in local stories. He writes about practical ways to improve visitor engagement, support local businesses, and make tourism initiatives easier to launch and manage. View Andrew’s profile and connect on LinkedIn