Digital audio guide creation for a village or small town - Best practices to follow

Creating a digital audio guide for a small town or village is a significant undertaking. To guarantee the success of your digital guide that will attract more visitors even to lesser-known places and support local economies, it is crucial to adhere to certain principles. Luckily, our senior copywriters, well-versed in creating captivating travel guides, shared their insights and know-how! So, in this article, you'll discover the best practices and professional tips for crafting engaging digital audio guides and self-guided tours of charming small towns and villages.

Destination management organizations (DMOs) but also local tourist attractions and travel businesses can use these insights to develop outstanding digital audio guides.

6 Benefits of creating an exceptional digital audio guide for your destination on SmartGuide:

SmartGuide is the world's #1 digital audio guide platform that provides visitors with self-guided tours on their phones, allowing them to explore a destination at their own pace. It also helps tourists discover places and sights that they may have otherwise missed, including those in smaller destinations. Here are 6 compelling benefits that come with creating digital audio guides with SmartGuide:

• Increased visitor engagement: With interactive experiences showcasing culture and attractions, you can foster visitor engagement, encouraging them to return for more.
• 24/7 tourist information center: Provide detailed information on must-visit places, opening hours, transportation, dining options, or accommodations in your digital audio guide, accessible 24/7, all year round.
• Tailored content: Create customized content aligned with the audience's preferences, and leverage SmartGuide's in-app recommendations to provide each visitor with an experience based on their interests.
• International audience: Reach a broader audience by offering a digital audio guide and information for visitors in multiple languages.
• Easy updates and scalability: Effortlessly incorporate new content keeping up with evolving tourism trends, or clone multilingual versions of your tours in one click.
• Effective marketing: Utilize guides as marketing tools to attract more visitors and highlight distinctive offerings.

Boosting visitor engagement and tourism revenue in villages and small towns with premium digital audio guides is achievable - today. SmartGuide offers an easy-to-use platform that makes it simple for anyone to create engaging tours in no time and reach a large global audience.

How to create an extraordinary digital guide according to professional travel guide copywriters

To make sure your digital audio guide stands out, our copywriting team provided expert tips on how to craft immersive content. These simple tips will help you create unique digital audio guides for a small town or village and share them with your visitors in a matter of hours:

#1 Write captivating descriptions of destinations

Crafting tour guide descriptions for the village involves providing essential information to a diverse range of visitors. It's important to captivate their attention by sharing intriguing stories and highlighting the village's unique charm.

• For broader appeal, avoid including specific, time-sensitive details such as opening hours and entrance fees; instead, provide a link to the official website for up-to-date information.
• For those interested in delving deeper, consider including history and additional information in the "Learn more" section.
• Keep in mind that visitors enjoy dining in quaint local eateries, exploring artisanal shops, and discovering unusual tourist attractions. Therefore, it's always a good idea to mention information about the most prominent landmarks, popular shopping spots, and top-rated restaurants or cafes within the destination.
• Strive for brevity while making the first few sentences captivating. Audio descriptions should ideally last between 1 to 1.5 minutes to maintain listener engagement.
• Additionally, consider developing off-the-beaten-path recommendations highlighting the lesser-known options, so you can cater to a certain traveler's preference and ensure a well-rounded destination experience.

#2 Showcase must-see attractions and unique points of interest

A good digital travel guide should take visitors through the most fascinating points of interest (POIs) that cater to a wide range of audiences. The carefully curated content should ensure that visitors uncover the unique aspects and features of each place, providing them with a memorable experience.

• Familiarize yourself with the village's history and culture, so you can present it in the best possible way to tourists who may not be acquainted with it.
• The tour guide should introduce visitors to the top POIs in the village or town. From awe-inspiring historical and religious sites, cultural centers, traditional markets, local eateries, and village squares to picturesque natural wonders, these attractions are sure to capture their imagination.
• Additionally, highlight also the lesser-known gems that showcase the destination's distinct charm and character. Conduct thorough research on local walking routes or tourist attractions that may be less popular but still hold value. Engage with knowledgeable locals who can provide insider insights into the area.
• Once you have compiled a list of these secret spots, construct your tour routes around these unique points of interest, delivering an extraordinary and exclusive experience to visitors.
• Before delivering the tours, make sure you effectively convey information within any pre-determined time frame.

#3 Identify your target audience(s) and customize content for them

To build a unique narrative that really resonates and attracts visitors, it is imperative to identify and understand your audience.

• Understand your ideal and your median visitor. Put yourself in their shoes to provide an authentic experience, emphasizing essential details and providing clear directions.
• You can never miss by creating a highlights tour - by catering to diverse traveler preferences, you can create a well-rounded and unforgettable tour experience for the majority.
• If you identify major audiences with specific interests, tailor the tours for them, whether they are architecture enthusiasts, history buffs, or families with children.
  There are many diverse tour themes you can develop, such as "The Taste of Village Delights" food tour, "Must-See Hidden Gems for Adventurers", "Enchanting Village Folklore" or "Following the Footsteps of Local Legends". Put yourself in the mindset of a visitor to create a realistic experience, while highlighting crucial details and providing clear directions.
  
  NOTE: Tourist numbers in villages and small towns are often lower. Therefore, exercise caution when creating extremely specific tours, as the effort invested may not yield proportional results.
  

#4 Craft an effective tour portfolio for smaller destinations with the right composition of tours

When creating digital audio guides for smaller destinations, it is essential to determine the appropriate number and composition of tours.

• Start by evaluating your destination's size and the availability of attractions. Smaller villages or towns generally require one or two tours, while larger or more popular ones may necessitate three or more, depending on the variety of points of interest (POIs) available.
• While selecting POIs for inclusion in your tours, prioritize sites that are easily accessible, visually captivating, and well-known.
• Additionally, take into account the size of each POI when designing the tour route to prevent overcrowding and ensure a pleasant experience for visitors.
• Design tours for different timeframes, including one-day itineraries, weekend explorations, or in-depth experiences for repeat visitors to cater to diverse audience needs.

#5 Develop compelling and intriguing audio guide content

When creating travel guide content, prioritizing the audience's experience is paramount. Focus on creating content that is entertaining, informative, and educational, while constantly considering if you would enjoy the description as a visitor using the app.

Here are the SmartGuide copywriter team's takes on creating captivating digital audio guide content:

1. Conduct thorough research and attribute sources properly: Utilize multiple reputable sources to ensure the accuracy of your information. Instead of using full URL addresses, mention the website as your source.
2. Keep sentences concise and straightforward: Use shorter sentences to facilitate easy understanding and prevent the audience from getting lost in the meaning.
3. Utilize formatting and emojis: Feel free to employ bold, italics, and emojis to aid in navigating your content for those who read it while listening.
4. Craft attention-grabbing descriptions and subtitles: Provide clear and comprehensible explanations of each destination, enticing the audience to learn more. If possible, avoid starting the description with the destination's or place's name - as the audio guide always reads the place's name first when triggered, it would sound repetitive if the description started with the place's name too.
5. Share local knowledge: If you are a local, offer insights into your favorite spots, valuable tips, and insider information that cannot be googled, to benefit visitors even more.
6. Use simple language: Avoid complex vocabulary to cater to the widest possible group of tourists. 
   
7. Incorporate high-quality images: Select visually striking pictures that inspire visitors to explore further. Always use free images or those with proper attribution. Awesome sources to find free, high-quality pictures are Unsplash, Freepik, Pexels, and Pixabay.
8. Consider professional audio: If feasible, opt for professionally recorded human audio to provide an immersive travel experience. Ensure the recordings are clean and free of background noise or other distractions. Alternatively, you can always use SmartGuide's professional audio narration and phonemes editing services (contact us to learn more). Or, you can use the powerful text-to-speech function built into SmartGuide's content management system, free of charge.
   

Publish a digital audio guide for your destination in as little as an hour with SmartGuide CMS

One of SmartGuide's concealed weapons is its extremely user-friendly AI-powered content management system (SmartGuide CMS), allowing destinations, tourist attractions, travel businesses, and tour guides to effortlessly publish their own digital travel guides in as little as an hour. This self-service CMS empowers content creators to personalize the visitor experience, foster engagement, and attract more visitors by tailoring content to their specific target audiences. It even provides an opportunity to create a new revenue stream by selling digital audio guides to travelers.

The CMS includes an automatic text-to-speech feature, instantly converting written text into audio tracks. It's also integrated with DeepL translator for seamless translation into multiple languages with a single click, facilitating fast and simple customized content creation for diverse audiences and nationalities. SmartGuide also promotes sustainable tourism by distributing visitors more evenly and guiding them to lesser-known areas, supporting the local economy.

SmartGuide caters to a wide range of content creators, allowing them to offer both mainstream content for a general audience and specialized thematic tours tailored to niche interests. Whether it's indoor or outdoor activities, walking, cycling, boating, or traveling by car or tour bus, SmartGuide provides flexibility to ensure every visitor finds the perfect guide to suit their preferences.

Why choose SmartGuide as your digital audio guide platform and destination management tool

SmartGuide is the leading digital travel guide platform globally, covering nearly 1000 destinations and offering accessible content to tourists worldwide through the SmartGuide app.

The platform also provides big data dashboards, GPS heatmaps, and big data analysis services, offering destinations valuable insights into visitors' behavior. The expert data analysis service supports destination management and marketing strategies, enabling data-driven decision-making.

Benefits of using SmartGuide include

• No additional maintenance costs for destinations and travel businesses operating digital guides.
• Availability of 102 languages for guide creation, catering to a diverse global audience.
• Free CMS with AI-powered text-to-speech and auto-translation for easy content localization.
• In-depth analysis of data, providing insights into visitor demographics, acquisition channels, and popular tours/places.
• Destination marketing services and expert consultations are available.

With SmartGuide, you gain a powerful digital audio guide platform and destination management tool that supports sustainable tourism and enables destinations to offer exceptional visitor experiences.

Conclusion

Taking the time to carefully research and select points of interest and create an effective tour portfolio for a village or small town will help attract more visitors to the destinations and spread them to the lesser-known places. By following the best practices outlined in this article, you can create remarkable digital audio tours that leave a lasting impression on visitors.

Do you want to attract more visitors to your destination?