Friday, February 19, 2010
Denver Business Journal - by Ed Sealover
Picture the 1950s: Big, gas-guzzling cars. Families fleeing the cities for suburbs. And large group tours, either by bus or on foot, of visitors that hit the same few historic places and get told the same stories in every city.
Now small, green cars are hip. The baby boomers are moving back downtown. And the tour business is finding new life through new technology, specialized jaunts and a growing trend toward self-guided but expert-described explorations of hidden secrets of a city.
In fact, you might not even know you’re walking by someone who is taking a tour of a city now, as they might appear just to be listening to an iPod or jumping out of a limo with friends when they are actually learning about the sites, sounds and tastes of Denver.
And businesspeople are bringing new ideas to this field, profiting off the public’s desire to delve deeper into their own city or their vacation destination when such information is easier than ever to access and when their resources are stretched thinner than ever.
“I think travelers start to realize that if they can enhance their vacation for under $20, when they are already spending hundreds or thousands of dollars, that’s a good value,” said Marie Profant, CEO of the company Visual Travel Tours.
Fifty years ago, Profant noted, people took big guided bus tours throughout cities. Then came personal, small-group tours, but those were expensive and didn’t always go to the exact sites that people wanted to see.
Museums started to free up wandering tourists in the decades to follow by providing large phone-like devices that allowed visitors to punch in a number and learn more about the painting or artifact that was in front of them. And by the beginning of the 21st century, people began to figure out that such technology could free visitors to see an entire city this way....
Beyond the self-guided tour
Profant’s company, based in Santa Barbara, Calif., takes the evolution of the self-guided tour one step further. She has built a series of audio and visual tours in 22 states and 30 countries that can be downloaded onto an iPhone or other mobile devices and guide people across large areas.
Visual Travel Tours launched in Colorado in late 2009 with three tours: Victorian Breckenridge, Colorado’s Hot Springs Trail and Winter in Steamboat Springs. Local writers guide people through the cities with both basic facts and insider anecdotes.
Profant already is looking to expand to more Colorado locations. She believes such locally based jaunts are only going to grow in popularity.
“It’s the next best thing to having your friend take you around town,” Profant said. “This is a very different way to hear it.”
Specialized tours offer unique ways to see a city; ‘staycations’ helped out
Denver Business Journal - by Ed Sealover
Picture the 1950s: Big, gas-guzzling cars. Families fleeing the cities for suburbs. And large group tours, either by bus or on foot, of visitors that hit the same few historic places and get told the same stories in every city.
Now small, green cars are hip. The baby boomers are moving back downtown. And the tour business is finding new life through new technology, specialized jaunts and a growing trend toward self-guided but expert-described explorations of hidden secrets of a city.
In fact, you might not even know you’re walking by someone who is taking a tour of a city now, as they might appear just to be listening to an iPod or jumping out of a limo with friends when they are actually learning about the sites, sounds and tastes of Denver.
And businesspeople are bringing new ideas to this field, profiting off the public’s desire to delve deeper into their own city or their vacation destination when such information is easier than ever to access and when their resources are stretched thinner than ever.
“I think travelers start to realize that if they can enhance their vacation for under $20, when they are already spending hundreds or thousands of dollars, that’s a good value,” said Marie Profant, CEO of the company Visual Travel Tours.
Fifty years ago, Profant noted, people took big guided bus tours throughout cities. Then came personal, small-group tours, but those were expensive and didn’t always go to the exact sites that people wanted to see.
Museums started to free up wandering tourists in the decades to follow by providing large phone-like devices that allowed visitors to punch in a number and learn more about the painting or artifact that was in front of them. And by the beginning of the 21st century, people began to figure out that such technology could free visitors to see an entire city this way....
Beyond the self-guided tour
Profant’s company, based in Santa Barbara, Calif., takes the evolution of the self-guided tour one step further. She has built a series of audio and visual tours in 22 states and 30 countries that can be downloaded onto an iPhone or other mobile devices and guide people across large areas.
Visual Travel Tours launched in Colorado in late 2009 with three tours: Victorian Breckenridge, Colorado’s Hot Springs Trail and Winter in Steamboat Springs. Local writers guide people through the cities with both basic facts and insider anecdotes.
Profant already is looking to expand to more Colorado locations. She believes such locally based jaunts are only going to grow in popularity.
“It’s the next best thing to having your friend take you around town,” Profant said. “This is a very different way to hear it.”
Tours in Colorado
Near Denver: Colorado’s Hot Springs Trail by Kathryn Brockman
Winter in Steamboat Springs by Andrea Kennedy
Victorian Breckenridge by Lisa Mercer
