Tour Guide System Showdown: Comparing the features of SmartGuide and VoiceMap

Digital tour guide systems are becoming increasingly popular among visitors. This pushes tourist destinations and attractions to innovate and implement digital guides. But with so many options available, it can be difficult to decide which tour guide system is best suited for your destination's or travel businesses' needs. In this blog post, we'll compare two of the most popular tour guide systems on the market: SmartGuide and VoiceMap.

Introducing the leading tour guide systems on the market

SmartGuide revolutionizes the tourism industry with its digital audio guide platform, transforming any smartphone into a personal tour guide. This innovative solution empowers destination management organizations (DMOs), tourist attractions, tour operators, and travel businesses to effortlessly captivate and enthrall visitors with immersive stories in almost 1000 destinations, and with its diverse array of features.

VoiceMap is another popular tour guide system that provides audio tours in over 300 cities around the world. Its audio tours are narrated by local experts who provide insight into the history and culture of each destination. Additionally, users can access interactive maps and photos of attractions to help them plan their trips more efficiently.

Destinations and tourism businesses seeking a dependable tour guide system can find unique advantages in both SmartGuide and VoiceMap. SmartGuide's all-in-one solution with comprehensive features caters to those desiring a complete package, while VoiceMap's immersive audio tours deliver a unique experience. Both services offer exceptional value for money.

SmartGuide: Empowering personalized digital tours

SmartGuide is a digital audio guide platform with a mobile app that offers self-guided tours and stories with extensive coverage of over 100,000 tourist places worldwide, featuring publicly accessible content, mostly for free.

One of the standout features of SmartGuide is its open self-service AI-powered content management system (CMS), which gives destinations, popular tourist attractions, and tour guides an opportunity to effortlessly publish their own digital guide in as little as an hour. Its level of accessibility allows for tailoring a personalized visitor experience, fostering engagement, and enabling businesses to attract more visitors with content aimed at their particular target audiences. SmartGuide's CMS has a built-in automatic text-to-speech feature (so the written text automatically converts to an audio track in seconds). It's also possible to translate an entire tour to another language with a single click with the integrated DeepL translator. By enabling fast and simple customized content creation for different audiences and nationalities, SmartGuide also serves as a solution for achieving more sustainable tourism in destinations by distributing visitors more evenly and guiding them independently to less crowded areas.

With SmartGuide, content creators can prepare mainstream content for a wide audience as well as specialized thematic tours tailored to niche interests. The platform also offers valuable features such as big data dashboards, GPS heatmaps of visitor behavior, and expert data analysis services, empowering destination management and marketing efforts.

SmartGuide's Impressive Accolades: Recognitions and Awards

SmartGuide has earned widespread recognition, receiving numerous accolades and awards in over 20 international industry competitions. Notably, in 2020, it received the prestigious Accelerator Award from the Singapore Tourism Board among hundreds of global startups, and the European Commission bestowed it with the Seal of Excellence for its exceptional response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The remarkable achievements continued as SmartGuide garnered the Hero of Tourism 2022 award, as voted by experts and the general public. It also received a special honor from the Minister of Regional Development and the Czech Tourism Director's Award in the Digitalization category. These acknowledgments demonstrate SmartGuide's excellence and impact in the tourism industry.

Recently, SmartGuide secured a remarkable €1 Million grant to develop an Artificial Intelligence system that will provide personalized travel recommendations based on individual interests and support augmented reality experiences. The company's exceptional work has been recommended for funding by the European Commission, and it has been approved as a preferred digital travel services provider within the DigiTour project funding initiative.

Further solidifying its reputation, SmartGuide was invited to present as a best practice tourism innovator at the European Tourism Forum 2022 and European Tourism Day 2023, sharing insights with EU tourism policymakers.

SmartGuide boasts an impressive roster of clients and partners, including Switzerland Tourism, Prague City Tourism, Bratislava Tourism Board, Carlsbad, Singapore National Heritage Board, Harvard Business School, Dubai Tourism, Pilsner Urquell, RegioJet, Thames River Sightseeing, Deutsche Bundesbahn, and many other esteemed organizations. These collaborations highlight SmartGuide's trusted position in the industry and its commitment to delivering exceptional digital travel experiences.

Pros:

1. No additional maintenance costs for destinations and travel businesses that want to operate digital guides.
2. SmartGuide currently covers 100,000+ tourist places worldwide.
3. 102 Languages available to create guides in (Chinese, French, German, Spanish, English, Hindi, Slovak, Croatian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Afrikaans, Dutch, and Finnish, to name a few)
4. Free CMS with AI-powered text-to-speech and auto-translation for easy localization of content.
5. Accurate and detailed insights provided by big data dashboards and GPS heatmaps of visitors' behavior.
6. Expert analysis of data to understand visitor demographics, acquisition channels, and popular tours/places.
7. Destination marketing services and expert consultations are available.
8. Possibility for travel businesses to promote their offerings via POI Advertising (contact us to learn more)

Cons:

1. Less localized content is available in languages other than English, which is depending on the preference of content creators (since SmartGuide is an open platform where anyone can create a digital travel guide, the content localization mirrors the preferred languages of whoever creates a tour).
2. Fewer integrations, although more are being implemented (currently, SmartGuide supports e.g. the GetYourGuide ticket sales).
3. Not accessible on the Windows Phone Store.
   

Unlocking hidden gems with VoiceMap's audio tour app

VoiceMap is a digital audio guide and a mobile app that offers GPS-guided audio tours in more than 300 destinations worldwide. These tours are created by local storytellers, such as journalists, filmmakers, novelists, podcasters, and tour guides. By utilizing the visitor's device's location, the app automatically plays audio at the precise time, syncing with their movements. Additionally, VoiceMap provides directions, empowering destinations, and travel businesses to allow visitors to fully immerse themselves in the environment instead of focusing on the screen. Similar to SmartGuide, the tours can be enjoyed offline, as you can install the audio and access an offline map.

VoiceMap's tours are designed to be easily discoverable through search optimization and are distributed through a vast network of partners. The app is available for download on both the App Store and Google Play.

This guided tour app offers flexible pricing plans, ranging from $20 to $50 for self-guided tours, with revenue sharing for tour publishers. Presales and aftersales support are provided.

Exclusive celebrity tours, like Sir Ian McKellen's London West End tour, are available only on VoiceMap.

Pros:

1. Offers the convenience of a single account that can be accessed across multiple devices.
2. Has a forum where professional tour guides can discuss creating and testing their own tours.
3. The CMS is a user-friendly, web-based publishing tool that provides estimated talk times and word counts, eliminating the need for extensive testing and recording.
4. Provides alphanumeric vouchers for specific tours, which can be redeemed on their website or mobile apps. These vouchers are unique, allowing for one or multiple uses, and can be redeemed through apps, web browsers, or by entering codes in tour URLs.

Cons:

1. Doesn't incorporate AI-powered text-to-speech or any other AI-driven functionalities.
2. Doesn't offer big data dashboards or GPS heatmaps as part of its features.
3. Instead of relying on GPS, VoiceMap uses indoor positioning systems (IPS) to determine the user's position and provide accurate directions.
4. Some visitors report VoiceMap does not automatically start the tour based on your location; instead, you must be on their designated route and heading in the correct direction. This can be frustrating for users accustomed to seamless location-based triggering.
5. Visitors also report that the information provided during the tour is limited, offering minimal insights compared to what could be obtained from Google Maps.
6. Another complaint reports encountering multiple instances of the app freezing.
7. Not accessible on the Windows Phone Store.

By comprehending the advantages and disadvantages of each platform, destinations and travel businesses can make informed choices regarding the platform that aligns best with their requirements and enhances the visitor experience they aim to deliver.

Celebrating excellence: VoiceMap's accolades and recognition

VoiceMap has garnered extensive media coverage, being prominently featured in prestigious publications like Forbes, The Guardian, and TechCrunch. Furthermore, it achieved the distinction of being a finalist in the Web Summit Pitch 2018 competition. According to the VoiceMap blog, the app has received notable recognition and awards for its exceptional contributions.

Additionally, it boasts an impressive cumulative total of 10,000 ratings across all tours available on the platform. Moreover, the VoiceMap website proudly highlights the involvement of acclaimed producer Claire Schoen, renowned for her expertise in crafting captivating audio narratives for the app.

Features comparison

Conclusion

Both solutions deliver remarkable experiences to enrich the travel journeys of adventurers seeking unforgettable explorations, each offering distinct features that set them apart from the competition. VoiceMap specializes in B2C paid audio tours and stands out with its advanced tour preview and web version features. On the other hand, SmartGuide has gained significant traction in the market, even though it was launched three years later than VoiceMap. It boasts three times more destinations and five times more users. SmartGuide goes beyond individual tours and offers comprehensive destination guides that include information on specific points of interest, destination insights, experiences, services, and more. SmartGuide also offers additional smart functions, such as data analytics, user messaging, API integrations, and personalized recommendations. It supports a wider range of languages and provides a considerable amount of free content and functions. In contrast, VoiceMap has limited free tour options and restrictions on free tour generation and duration.

In summary, while both VoiceMap and SmartGuide provide CMS for publishing audio tours, SmartGuide offers a more extensive range of destinations, advanced features, and greater language support. It also provides a larger amount of free content and functions, making it a comprehensive and versatile choice for those seeking a digital audio guide platform.