Tour guides phone it in: Company moves beyond iPods
Boston Herald, MA
August 22, 2006
A local tour guide company that led tours through iPods and other MP3 players is now moving onto cell phones.
Audissey Guides, a Boston-based company that created downloadable tours of some of the city’s less frequented tourist spots, recently teamed up with Talking Street to bring its content onto visitors’ cell phones.
Despite the iPod’s success, the cell phone is the “most ubiquitous portable device,” said David Solomont, chairman of Candide Media Works Inc., parent company of Talking Street.
Indeed, allowing customers to dial-up tours rather than downloading them means they won’t have to come prepared before they hit town, said Rob Pyles, executive producer and founder of Audissey Guides. “The cool thing with cell phone tours is the traveler doesn’t have to plan ahead,” he said. “We really target younger travelers. Young people don’t always plan ahead.”
Audissey Guides’ tours of Boston usually deviate from the Freedom Trail. Instead, people like Dicky Barrett of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones provide narrated segments on events such as racial feuds that happened in the Financial District.
Talking Street is known for its cell phone celebrity tours of major cities. In the past local rocker and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler provided narration for one Boston tour.
Teaming up with Talking Street means Audissey Guides’ tours can be accessed from a cell phone by dialing a local number. The tour costs $5.95 and is billed directly to customers’ wireless bills.
August 22, 2006
A local tour guide company that led tours through iPods and other MP3 players is now moving onto cell phones.
Audissey Guides, a Boston-based company that created downloadable tours of some of the city’s less frequented tourist spots, recently teamed up with Talking Street to bring its content onto visitors’ cell phones.
Despite the iPod’s success, the cell phone is the “most ubiquitous portable device,” said David Solomont, chairman of Candide Media Works Inc., parent company of Talking Street.
Indeed, allowing customers to dial-up tours rather than downloading them means they won’t have to come prepared before they hit town, said Rob Pyles, executive producer and founder of Audissey Guides. “The cool thing with cell phone tours is the traveler doesn’t have to plan ahead,” he said. “We really target younger travelers. Young people don’t always plan ahead.”
Audissey Guides’ tours of Boston usually deviate from the Freedom Trail. Instead, people like Dicky Barrett of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones provide narrated segments on events such as racial feuds that happened in the Financial District.
Talking Street is known for its cell phone celebrity tours of major cities. In the past local rocker and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler provided narration for one Boston tour.
Teaming up with Talking Street means Audissey Guides’ tours can be accessed from a cell phone by dialing a local number. The tour costs $5.95 and is billed directly to customers’ wireless bills.
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