What Is a Self Guided Tour? Formats, Costs, and What Visitors Expect

I was chatting with a BIA director last week who was frustrated that her beautiful, hand-drawn heritage maps were being used as coasters at the local coffee shop. It’s a struggle we all know: you have incredible local stories to tell, but your traditional methods are expensive, hard to update, and physically messy. If you’ve been asking yourself what is a self guided tour and how it actually fits into a modern marketing budget, you’re essentially looking at a way to put a high-end visitor center experience directly into your guest's pocket.

What is a self guided tour and why is it replacing paper?

A self guided tour is a curated journey where visitors follow a pre-set path using their own mobile device, typically guided by GPS triggers that reveal audio, video, or text as they walk. Instead of relying on a human guide or a static brochure, your visitors use a self-guided tour app to explore on their own terms.

For organizations like Destination Canada or local BIAs, this shifts the focus from "distributing paper" to "delivering experiences." By using a digital tourism platform like Driftscape, you can turn a simple sidewalk into a narrated history lesson or a fun scavenger hunt that encourages people to shop local.

Three Formats That Work for Busy Tourism Teams

You don't need a massive production crew to get started. Most successful destinations pick a format based on their specific community goals:

• Heritage Tours: These focus on storytelling. Think of the Michigan Heroes Museum, which used interactive audio to bring military history to life, resulting in over 3,000 exhibit interactions.

• Gamified Exploration: Great for families. The Downtown Carleton Place BIA turned local history into a "Hardy Boys" scavenger hunt and saw 1,300 completions in just 30 days.

• Thematic "Shop Local" Trails: These guide visitors between specific businesses, often rewarding them with digital coupons for checking in.

Feature	Paper Brochure	Self-Guided App
Updates	Requires a full reprint	Instant digital edit
Analytics	None (Estimated)	Real-time POI views & check-ins
Engagement	Static text/images	Immersive travel experience (Audio/Video/AR)
Cost over time	High (Recurring print)	Low (Single platform subscription)

What Visitors Expect from Your Digital Tour

Today's travelers aren't just looking for facts; they want a frictionless adventure. They expect a tour to be accessible without a PhD in navigation.

If you use a platform like Driftscape, you satisfy the three "must-haves" for a modern visitor:

1. Contextual Audio: They want to hear the history while they look at the building.

2. Offline Reliability: They shouldn't lose the tour just because they lost a bar of LTE.

3. Incentives: Give them a "why." Whether it's a digital badge or a discount at a local bakery, a little reward goes a long way.

Tourism Reality: Paper maps don't tell you who used them. Digital tours give you the data to prove to your board that your "Art Walk" actually drove 500 people to the downtown core.

Cost Comparison: Print vs. Digital ROI

When people ask me what is a self guided tour cost-wise, I always point to the Crescent Heights Village BIA. They saved $6,850 in printing costs by moving their cultural activation to a mobile format. They didn't just save money; they gained a direct line to their visitors’ preferences.

By investing in a digital tourism platform, you’re creating a permanent, scalable asset. You can add a new stop for a summer festival and remove it by Monday morning (no recycling bin required!). It turns cultural tourism into a living, breathing part of your community's digital presence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What’s the best way to get people to use the tour?

A: QR codes are your best friend. Put them on window clings, trailhead signs, and even on the back of receipts at local cafes.

Q: Do people really want to use their phones while on vacation?

A: Yes, but they want it to enhance the view, not distract from it. Use audio so they can keep their eyes on the architecture while they listen.

Q: How do we measure success?

A: Unlike paper, digital platforms provide "POI views" and "Total Interactions." You’ll see exactly which stops are popular and which ones might need a better story.

Q: Can we include local business deals?

A: Absolutely. Linking a historical stop to a "Shop Local" coupon at the shop next door is the best way to keep your merchants happy.

Self-guided tours allow small teams to provide a "concierge" level of service to every single visitor, 24 hours a day, at a fraction of the cost of traditional guides or print media.

If you’re ready to see how your local stories could look on a phone screen instead of a recycling bin, book a demo and explore what is a self guided tour can do for your community.