Tourism: Creating dynamic walking tours
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Creating dynamic historic walking tours Presented by Nan Devlin, MTA and Brad For3er, MA
description
Walking tours are a great way to engage visitors in the history of your Main Street. In fact, Portland, Seattle and Pendleton all conduct walking tours so popular they have become tourist attractions on their own! Successful tours have a strong educational component but are also entertaining, and fun. Tour developers use stories and techniques that “stick” and train their guides in ways that continually engage the audience. This session will examine storytelling and improvisational methods to help make your walking tour a five-star tourist draw.
Transcript of Tourism: Creating dynamic walking tours
Creating dynamic historic walking tours
Presented by Nan Devlin, MTA and Brad For3er, MA
Purpose of session • Share best prac0ces for crea0ng a walking tour • Give examples of “before and a>er” for each best prac0ce • Reveal key guiding techniques by taking you on a short tour • Wrap-‐up and Q&A
Why develop a walking tour? • Stories give towns their soul • Introduces visitors and locals to an insider’s view of the town – educa0onal and entertaining • Creates a visitor experience that fuels valuable word of mouth marke0ng • Economic driver – entrepreneurial opportunity or fundraiser for a Main Street project
Why develop a walking tour?
• Reclaims hidden history, builds civic pride, and honors a sense of place • Gets people out of cars and puts their feet on the ground, walking by local businesses, public art • Gives visitors more reasons to come back, and locals more reason to share home town experiences
Two main types of tours • Self guided • Printed brochure or book • Mobile website, mobile app • Podcast
• Guided • Group, custom or private tours
Themes and styles of tours • Historical • Architectural • Culinary • Ghost/cemetery • Music • Art • Crime • Comedy/theater • Unsavory history • Film
#1 Focus on stories, not on facts
Portland business woman Nancy Boggs
#2 Lead with the myths, but reveal the facts
The Notorious Bunko Kelly Myth and Facts
#3 Share stories the visitor center won’t tell you
Welcome to Chinatown
#4 Create a guided discovery
#5 Connect the past to present day
What did Robert Kennedy say to Portlanders in the 1950s that helped changed the city’s path?
#6 Involve community partners to tell their stories
#7 Use storytellers and actors as tour guides, not necessarily historians, scholars or good memorizers
#8 Turn a group of strangers into traveling companions
Wrap-‐up -‐ Tours can humanize history and locale -‐They engage, inspire, build memory of your destination -‐Great way to involve young, starving actors in history
Brad Fortier, MA hiftconsulting.com 971-‐200-‐5036 Nan Devlin, MTA avidtraveler.com 971 235-‐9785
