New Era for Online Guide Tours — The Virtual Tour Age Continues

Skilled guides leading trips in real time have kept online travel going, even as borders closed during the pandemic. We asked guides from the startup Guidelive, which has moved quickly and energetically into *virtual tours, about the present and future of travel.

Materials provided by Guidelive
* Guidelive has launched a total of 60 virtual tours, covering 48 cities and attractions. Since launch, it has run about 2,250 virtual tours with more than 70,000 participants.

Spain
Barcelona

Guides Kwon Seungwan and Seong Yeeun: They worked on the guide team for the Spain episode of tvN’s ‘Grandpas Over Flowers.’ They have led more than 1,500 Gaudí tours alone, and they present Barcelona from many perspectives, from its landmarks to walks through the alleys of the old town and docent-led tours of the Picasso Museum.

What are the main courses of your current virtual tours?
Course A explores Barcelona’s newer districts. It includes the peak works of the architect Gaudí: Casa Batlló, Casa Milà and the Sagrada Família (Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família). Course B is a stroll through every corner of Barcelona’s vintage old town. We visit hidden streets and squares with stories of history and culture, and we sample traditional snacks like churros and coffee.

What are the advantages of a virtual tour compared with an offline guided tour?
Even when travel is difficult, participants can receive travel information and local conditions more vividly than from any book, with no limits of space. For people with physical limitations, or for children who might get bored on a family trip, a virtual tour offers an easy and comfortable way to travel.

Is there a participant’s reaction that stays with you?
One person, who had struggled to make a trip several years ago because of a physical disability, told me it was a dream to see the Sagrada Família once more. They left me a message saying how grateful they were to see the basilica vividly through a virtual tour, since they had thought they would never see it again.

How will guided travel evolve?
I think guided trips will become more private and personal, and virtual tours will serve as a kind of preview that marks the start of a journey.

Is there a travel theme you recommend for the living-with-COVID era?
No Safety, No Travel! Many people in Korea are probably hesitant to travel because of personal reasons, constantly changing conditions abroad, and worries about health and safety. Start by enjoying the food and tours of a destination at home through a virtual tour, and have a safe, healing travel experience. Then, if what you see in the virtual tour convinces you that visiting in person would be fine, you can go carefully.

Austria
Vienna

Guide Lee Jeongeun: A leading Vienna guide with 20 years of experience and more than 100,000 tour participants. After studying economics at the University of Vienna, she was drawn into the city’s history and culture and settled there. She says she became a guide to share the charms of Vienna that she had discovered.

What are the main courses of your current virtual tours?
The terrace of the Albertina (Albertina Graphics Collection), a filming location for the film ‘Before Sunrise’; the Vienna State Opera (Wien Staatsoper), with its story of two men; the romantic Vienna trams; the Hofburg Palace, the legacy of an empire; Michaelerplatz, where the splendor begins; Kohlmarkt and Graben, streets that keep the look of the old town; and St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom), where a requiem rings out.

What are the advantages of a virtual tour compared with an offline guided tour?
A journey you take with your heart, from the most comfortable and familiar place of all: home.

Is there a participant’s reaction that stays with you?
“Memories of my time in Vienna came flooding back, and I was so moved I almost cried. T_T” (from a review by Bo******, who travels solo)

How will guided travel evolve?
A guide booking system where travelers can buy only the courses they want, by the hour. Instead of cramming everything into a single day, as in a traditional full-day trip or a ‘○○ City Tour,’ travelers could skip sights that don’t interest them and join only the places they want to see.

Is there a travel theme you recommend for the living-with-COVID era?
Evolutionary biology, earth science and genetics: the organic evolution of viruses and animals, and the development of a new philosophy.

Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong Shinjjang guide Shin Yonghun: A veteran guide who has stayed in Hong Kong for more than 20 years and shared the city’s deep charms with more than 80,000 travelers. He was the first to introduce Hong Kong virtual tours to Korea, and he also runs ‘Hong Kong 100 Travel’ with leading Hong Kong guides.

What are the main courses of your current virtual tours?
The Avenue of Stars, the Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower in Tsim Sha Tsui, the Star Ferry, the Central financial district, the Mid-Levels Escalator, Soho, Victoria Peak and more.

What are the advantages of a virtual tour compared with an offline guided tour?
I can bring you more of the street scenes and stories that travelers might miss on a trip because of their own stamina or unexpected situations. Is there a participant’s reaction that stays with you? There were many, but if I had to pick one, it’s a person whose family joined a virtual tour and then sent me a drawing as their review!

How will guided travel evolve?
The job of the guide will change to fit the role of ‘local creator, storyteller, raconteur,’ and travelers will choose new kinds of guides in search of more of the wonder of travel.

Is there a travel theme you recommend for the living-with-COVID era?
The fusion of travel with the environment, healthcare and the IT industry. Virtual tours gave hope that elderly people and people with disabilities who have difficulty getting around can also travel together live, and they have even made us think about the global environment.