This document discusses the importance of providing engaging tours and avoiding boring tours. It emphasizes that tours should tell interesting stories to captivate audiences rather than just reciting facts. A good tour guide must be a compelling storyteller. It also stresses the importance of consistency, tailoring the tour's narrative to the audience, and using professional writers to develop captivating stories for tours. Reviews from unhappy customers about boring tours can seriously damage a business, so guides should focus on entertaining audiences through storytelling to avoid negative feedback.

1. WHY YOU NEED
@audioconexus Condensed Version

2. PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY
TOUR
EMPTY
SEATS
RIGHT NOW, SOMEONE OUT THERE
IS ON A REALLY BORING TOUR
HOPEFULLY IT’S NOT YOURS

3. YOUR TOUR SHOULD BE
FUN
ENTERTAINING
EDUCATIONAL
INSPIRING
DON’T BORE PEOPLE
FLOOR
PEOPLE

4. Guided tours that preoccupy themselves with
describing what’s on the right, what’s on the
left — are simply announcing a route map.

5. What chance is there
that every guide you
hire is like Anthony
Quinn?
Or that your average
tours are going to
share average
stories?
Why are travelers
going to choose you?

6. The
worst sin
is to be
boring

7. So what makes a tour great?

8. An effective guided tour has more than a beginning,
a middle and an end;
it has a point.

9. Like a good story well spun, a great
tour narrative forges an imaginative
connection between teller and told.

10. A great tour, with a great story as its
core and context, is infused with its
own particular magic and energized
by its own unique electricity.
Deciding
the story
to tell is
only half
the story

11. A great tour, with a great story as its
core and context, is infused with its
own particular magic and energized
by its own unique electricity.
Deciding Bringing
the story that story
to tell is to life is
only half the other
the story half of the
battle

12. a great tour narrative uses every tool of
storytelling at its imaginative disposal

13. not only to engage the attention and
sustain the interest of its audience

14. but to immerse them within an enhanced
experience whose whole is demonstrably
greater than the sum of its part

15. memorable.

16. If you’re boring or your tours suck
PEOPLE WILL TALK

17. If you’re boring or your tours suck
PEOPLE WILL TALK
and

18. YOU CAN’T
IGNORE
SOCIAL MEDIA

19. *Reviews by real people found on the Web.
Names withheld.
The guide was very
cynical and said
demeaning things
about guests.

20. The
most boring
The guide was very tour ever!
cynical and said
demeaning things
about guests.

21. Seth Godin
knows how to
make a
successful
business tick
“How can you squander even one more day not
taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our
generation? How dare you settle for less when
the world has made it so easy for you to be
remarkable?” – Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog

22. So we decided to put together

23. Your tour is "good enough"
Either you deliver Wow or you're
wasting time and money.
Your tour sounds like a history
lecture
A traveler said it best: "a guide needs to be
a good storyteller. A pure recitation of facts
is mind-numbingly boring."
You don't follow a script
Lack of consistency is why businesses fail or
fail to grow.

24. You're not getting much
feedback or any comments
If people aren't talking about your tours it's
because they didn't have anything to talk about.
You asked staff members to
write your stories
We’ve seen a lot of bad tours. Using professional
writers means you’ll go from good to great.
You're talking about things
people don't care about
If you're talking about things people don't care
about - don't expect them to care about your
tour.

25. You're using the commentary
from 10 years ago
Your commentary is outdated. It more than likely
feels stale and old - not only for you - but for your
passengers.
Your marketing builds your
business (and will save you)
Focus on creating an exceptional customer
experience first. Then worry about the marketing.
Anyone can provide a great tour
Great guides have the knack. The mojo. The
magic. Invest in storytellers.

26. You don't know your audience
Focus on attracting audience(s) that share your worldview. And
then write commentary that will engage and entertain your
audience. The bottom line is your stories matter.
And they matter to your audience.

27. PROVIDING ENGAGING, ENTERTAINING TOURS
IS NOT A MYSTICAL ART

28. Storytelling is the heart and soul of a
great tour narrative

29. MAKE A POINT
BE CONSISTENT
TELL STORIES
INSPIRE PEOPLE

30. Thanks!
@audioconexus

31. CREDITS WEBSITES
FLICKR.COM
WIKIMEDIA.COM
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
PHOTOS YOUTUBE.COM
Flickr/Sightseeing/Thomas van de Weerd THANKS
Flickr/Pout/Dan Foy A Special Thanks to Blair Shakell for
Flickr/Packard tourist sightseeing car/Commons writing The Importance of Storytelling.
Flickr/New York Bus/Commons He’s not only one of our writers, he’s an
Flickr/flickr contacts/Hobvias Sudoneighm amazing guy.
Flickr/Our Guide 3/Son of Groucho And to @JESSEDEE for evangelizing
Wikimedia/CarrisTur – Tourists/Pedro Simões about what it takes to make a great
Quote from The Experience Economy - Pine and Gilmore presentation.
Flickr/DSC_0252/Joshua Ganderson
Flickr/Larry Lessig makes a point/Robert Scoble
Flickr/Catatonic Delirium/joaquinuy
Flickr/El Grito Del Fantasma/Javier Prazak
Flickr/40+37 Magic 8 Ball/Bark
Flickr/View on Black/John Steven Fernandez
Flickr/Seth.Godin.MBA/Aaron Tang
Flickr/Rain Man’s Rainbow/Steve Jurvetson
Flickr/Conjuration Original/Dhilung Kirat