Gamification for tourism boards: how to guide visitors to places worth discovering
Tourism boards, destination companies and regional visitor agencies face the same challenge year after year: how do you get visitors to discover more than the three most photographed locations? How do you spread tourist flows, lift smaller towns and convince visitors to stay one more day?
One of the most exciting tools that destinations — from national tourist organisations to regional destination companies and municipal visitor centres — can add to their toolbox is gamification. GPS-guided experiences, interactive city trails and digital treasure hunts work as a new channel alongside printed maps, brochures and guided tours — a channel that reaches visitors where they already are: on their phone.
Below we walk through how gamification opens up new audiences for a destination, and how a tourism organisation can get started.
A new channel that reaches audiences your maps don't
Printed maps, "Top 10" lists, PDF guides and signposted walking trails have built destination marketing for decades — and they continue to work brilliantly for visitors who pick up a brochure at reception or read the tourism office's website before the trip.
Gamification doesn't replace any of this. It adds an entirely new channel — mobile — and with it new audiences:
- Gen Y (millennials) and Gen Z today spend most of their leisure time on their phone. They don't check brochure stands; they search for "things to do" at the destination on mobile — often only once they're already there.
- International visitors who haven't been to the tourism office pull out their phone, scan a QR code at the airport, hotel or restaurant and are up and running in 30 seconds.
- Families who want an activity the kids can handle — something that feels "like a game" rather than a guided walkthrough.
Using the same destination content you already have — heritage, trails, sights, local businesses — you can reach these audiences in the channel where they actually are. The printed map and the interactive experience reinforce each other; they don't compete.
1. Spread visitor flows to hidden gems
The biggest advantage for a destination organisation is flow management. With a gamified experience — for example a GPS treasure hunt or a city trail with a scoring system — the tourism board designs the route itself.
Want to take pressure off the old town and lift a lesser-known neighbourhood? Place the most valuable "clues" there. Want to get visitors to travel ten kilometres outside the centre to a nature reserve or a historic mill town? Build a regional trail with stops rewarded by points, badges or unlockable bonus content.
The result: visitors discover places they would never have found otherwise, local businesses outside the core get more traffic, and the destination as a whole feels bigger.
Best for: regional tourism organisations, municipal visitor centres, national DMOs that want to market the whole country — not just the capital.
2. Get engagement data — without compromising visitor privacy
Tourism organisations have historically had very little insight into how visitors engage with content. With GeoQuestr you get answers to questions like:
- How many people have engaged with each location?
- Which stops are the most popular — and which never get reached?
- What do visitors know about the destination? Which quiz questions do they get right or wrong?
- Where do people drop out of the tour?
- Which language is used the most?
This is deliberately all we measure. GeoQuestr is built privacy- and integrity-first: we never send the visitor's GPS position over the network, and we don't track how long a single person stays at a given spot. The position is only used locally on the visitor's own device to unlock a stop.
For a European tourism board this is not a limitation — it's a concrete advantage. You get aggregated engagement statistics that drive your strategy, while being able to communicate to visitors that their movements aren't being tracked. It simplifies GDPR work, makes agreements with municipalities, regions and authorities easier to sign, and is an issue that international visitors value more and more.
3. Bring heritage to life without a guide
Many destinations have fantastic stories — viking sites, mill environments, castles, lighthouses, war history — but no resources to staff every location with a guide.
A gamified heritage trail solves that. Visitors get the story directly on their phone at each stop — with text, image or a short quiz question that reinforces memory. The content lives in multiple languages simultaneously and is available 24/7, year round — whether the tourism office is open or not.
For a country like Sweden this is especially relevant. We have an enormous amount to tell — from Bohuslän's rock carvings to Northern Sweden's industrial heritage — but the season is short and guide resources limited.
4. Reach Gen Y, Gen Z and families in their own channel
Gen Y (millennials) and Gen Z are now the two largest travelling generations — and they spend most of their leisure time on their phone. They plan the trip on mobile, decide the day's activity on mobile and share the experience from mobile. To reach these audiences it's not enough to be at the tourism office; you have to be on their screen.
Survey after survey shows that younger travellers rank experience and shareability higher than traditional sights. If the destination offers something they can compete in, photograph, share and talk about — it has captured an audience that printed materials rarely reach.
The same applies to family tourism, one of the fastest-growing segments. Kids want something that feels like a game — badges to unlock, photo missions, points, a leaderboard — and parents want an activity that keeps the kids engaged for hours without arguments. A gamified experience solves both needs in the same format.
5. Sustainable tourism: manage pressure on sensitive sites
Overcrowded sites are a growing problem. Some nature reserves, old town centres and heritage environments are worn down by too many visitors in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Gamification can be used as a pressure-relief tool. By designing routes that lead away from the most vulnerable sites during peak season, or by rewarding visits to alternative stops, the tourism organisation can actively manage flow.
For destinations working with sustainability certifications (Green Destinations, Global Sustainable Tourism Council), this is a concrete measure to report on.
6. Generate revenue — directly or indirectly
Gamified experiences don't have to be free. Destination companies can sell them as a "Discovery Pass" for €10–20, ideally bundled with public transport, museums or restaurant discounts.
Another option is to keep the experience free and instead earn indirectly by having local partners (restaurants, shops, museums) pay to be included as stops or bonuses. The model is similar to sponsored content, but tied to real visits and measurable engagement.
7. Strengthen your own brand in the digital channel
When a destination steps into the digital experience economy, there are two paths: send visitors to generic third-party apps, or build the experience under your own brand.
With a white-label gamification platform, the tourism organisation can launch the experience as Visit Stockholm, Visit Småland or Visit Skåne — with its own graphic profile, content and data. The visitor remembers the destination, the brand is reinforced, and the visitor relationship is owned by you — not by an intermediary.
How a tourism board gets started
The most common counter-argument we hear is "this sounds expensive and technically complicated." It isn't anymore.
With a modern platform like GeoQuestr a tourism board can:
- Build the first trail yourself in a few hours, without technical staff.
- Use a web-based experience — no app needs to be downloaded, which is a decisive factor for international visitors.
- Publish in multiple languages simultaneously for your most important markets.
- Get real-time data from day one.
- Scale up from a pilot in one neighbourhood to a regional or national rollout without changing platforms.
Many destinations start with a single pilot — for example a heritage trail in one neighbourhood or a summer campaign around a theme — and expand once the results come in.
In summary: a new channel in a broader toolbox
For a tourism board, gamification isn't about replacing something that already works. It's about adding a channel that reaches new audiences — primarily Gen Y, Gen Z and international visitors who live on their phones — while gaining tools for flow management, engagement data, sustainability, heritage interpretation and brand ownership, all without compromising visitor privacy.
Printed maps, brochures and guided tours continue to play their role. Gamification complements them by meeting the visitor on the device they already have in their pocket — and lets the destination speak to generations that would otherwise be hard to reach.
Get started
Are you a tourism board, destination company or regional visitor agency that wants to explore how gamification can strengthen your destination? Contact us at GeoQuestr for a demo — or create your first interactive experience for free and try the concept yourselves in an afternoon.