Making local exploration easier for small towns without adding staff
- Andrew Applebaum
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- 5 min de lecture
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Small communities can improve how people navigate their streets by using an app to explore a city. By organizing existing stories and business details into a clear digital map, tourism teams can reduce visitor friction without the need for additional staff.
Why discovery matters for summer tourism prep
As we prepare for the spring and summer tourism season, many municipal leaders and BIA managers are looking for ways to improve the visitor experience while working with lean teams. A common assumption is that better exploration requires more staff on the ground or a massive marketing spend.
In my experience working with communities across Canada, the raw materials for a great visit are usually already in place. The shops are open, the heritage plaques are out, and the trails are ready. The challenge is that once visitors arrive, it is often difficult for them to see how those individual pieces fit together.
When a visitor stands on a main street wondering where the nearest trailhead is or which local shops are open, they are looking for a quick way to connect the dots. If they cannot find that information easily on their phone, they may miss part of what your community has to offer. This is where a clear digital strategy can have a real impact on local economic support.
The missed opportunity in digital exploration
Many smaller destinations assume that sophisticated digital tools are only for big cities with large technical departments. This often leads to a missed opportunity. Instead of making discovery easier, lean teams sometimes rely on printed brochures that can quickly become outdated or complex websites that can be difficult to use on a mobile device while walking.
Small towns do not necessarily need more tourism staff to improve the visitor experience.
They need more efficient ways to organize discovery so visitors can find what is already there. The goal is to reduce the effort it takes to find a "next stop" rather than trying to out-produce larger destinations with high volumes of new content. This focus on efficiency helps teams show better value from their existing assets.
Practical steps to organize your visitor experience
To make your town easier to explore this season without increasing your administrative burden, consider this approach:
Audit your existing assets: Identify the stories and locations that already exist but are not currently easy to find. This includes public art, historic markers, and seasonal business offerings.
Centralize the information: Instead of asking visitors to search across social media and separate websites, pull your points of interest into a city guide app with map functionality.
Prioritize offline reliability: In many parts of Canada, data signals can be inconsistent. Using a tool that works offline ensures the experience remains helpful even if connectivity drops.
Look for automation: Use platforms that help keep business listings updated without requiring constant manual entry from your team. This protects your staff capacity while ensuring visitors see relevant information.
Case study: How Visit Sitka surfaced local businesses
Visit Sitka faced a challenge common to many smaller destinations: they wanted to help visitors discover local businesses and points of interest without a heavy administrative rollout.
By using a visitor experience platform that featured an offline-ready app and an automated business directory, they saw these results:
Visit Sitka surfaced 112 businesses, making them more visible to people exploring the area.
The platform generated 3,236 POI views, which suggests visitors were actively using the digital guide to find locations and plan their stops.
The offline-ready functionality meant the experience stayed consistent regardless of local cell signal.
This example suggests that automation can expand business visibility without requiring a large admin team. For other communities, the specific payoff will still depend on how often your listings change and how effectively the digital guide is promoted to your visitors.
Where this approach works best (and where it does not)
Improving discovery through a city guide app with map features is a strategic choice. It is helpful to understand if it fits your specific community layout.
This may be a good fit if... | This may not be a good fit if... |
Your attractions are spread across a town or rural region. | Your destination is very compact and intuitive to walk. |
You have a small team with limited time for manual updates. | You have a large staff available to distribute paper guides. |
Visitors often ask for recommendations on what is nearby. | All your points of interest are visible from one spot. |
You want to support businesses that are off the main path. | You have very few businesses or points of interest. |
Common mistakes in digital rollout
When launching a local travel guide, it is easy to fall into the "content trap." Teams often feel they must write long descriptions for every stop. However, visitors usually just need to know where it is, why it is interesting, and if it is open.
Another common mistake is overlooking the admin burden. If a digital tool requires your staff to manually change hours for dozens of businesses every week, it may become difficult to maintain over the long term. Practicality and ease of management should be the priority.
Tourism reality: Small towns improve the visitor experience when they reduce friction and make discovery easier, not when they try to out-produce larger destinations in volume.
Taking the next practical step
You do not need a large budget to start making your community easier to explore. A good first step is to identify your twenty most important stops. If a visitor can find those stops, learn their stories, and find a nearby place to eat within one interface, you have already addressed a major hurdle to exploration.
Using a platform like Driftscape can help you put this strategy into action. It allows you to house your local travel guide and business directories in one place that is helpful for visitors and manageable for your team.
Foire aux questions
Q: How much staff time does it take to manage a digital guide?
A: The time required depends on your platform. If you use automated business listings, the ongoing administrative work can be relatively low. The initial setup of your core stories is the main task, but once they are in place, they generally require very little maintenance.
Q: Do visitors actually use an app to explore a city?
A: Many visitors now look for digital tools to help them navigate new places. Providing a city guide app with map features can reduce the friction of discovery, making it easier for people to find local attractions that they might otherwise miss.
Q: How do we handle poor cell service in our area?
A: This is a frequent concern in many Canadian communities. To avoid a broken visitor experience, look for a platform that offers offline-ready maps and content. This allows visitors to download the information when they have Wi-Fi and use it anywhere.
Q: How can this help with my reporting to the board?
A: Digital platforms often provide visitor engagement analytics, such as POI views and map interactions. This data allows you to show your board how people are engaging with local businesses and which attractions are drawing interest.
Q: Is this suitable for a BIA with a limited budget?
A: Yes, focusing on digital discovery can be a cost-effective alternative to frequent re-printing of physical maps. It allows a BIA to update business information quickly, ensuring that marketing efforts reflect what is actually open on the street.
Ready to make your town easier to explore this summer?
Discover how Driftscape helps lean tourism teams launch interactive maps and discovery tools that support local businesses without adding to your daily workload.
About the author: Andrew Applebaum is a digital tourism expert at Driftscape who helps destinations, BIAs, museums, and tourism teams create self-guided visitor experiences rooted in local stories. He writes about practical ways to improve visitor engagement, support local businesses, and make tourism initiatives easier to launch and manage.
View Andrew’s profile and connect on LinkedIn.
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