Getting Your Virtual Visitors Through The Doors

As the world went into lockdown, online searches for digital tours of cultural and heritage sites rocketed. Earlier this week ATS Heritage’s Spencer Clark discussed the phenomenon on Turkish national broadcaster TRT and offered advice to visitor attractions on how a digital tour can increase a visitor’s appetite to make a physical visit.

Spencer speaking on Turkish national broadcaster TRT this week.

Speaking on the channel’s global arts and heritage programme ‘Showcase’, Spencer revealed that his team had to adapt in the early stages of the crisis to create online content for their clients, which enabled them to have an effective digital presence that showcased their content and build the desire to visit in future.

“We had to be responsive and really flexible with our clients and spent a lot of time speaking with them in the early days to understand what their challenges were and how we could help them respond”

The creative team at ATS Heritage helped to quickly turn around existing on-site content to create online experiences across a range of platforms. Including:

• Audio tour apps
• Virtual tours
• Website content
• Short-form video for social media channels

For each client the team had to consider the purpose of the visitor journey – just as they would for a physical visit. As Spencer noted, rather than leading with the technology, the emphasis was on creative storytelling and showcasing the content to create an appetite for a future visit.

Rather than trying to recreate the on-site experience, the team at ATS had to consider:

• Which items or stories would create the desire for a physical visit?
• What platform are people using (laptop, mobile phone, etc)?
• Can visitors sign up for further information on reopening?

Perhaps the best known and most celebrated example is The Painted Hall in Greenwich. Featured heavily in both the national and trade media, the attraction launched a digital tour that won rave reviews for its 360 degree interactive virtual tour. Produced by ATS Heritage, the tour continues to receive great feedback and can be experienced here: https://virtualtour.ornc.org/

ORNC – The Painted Hall, Virtual tour

The full 8 minute conversation from the broadcaster TRT can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61npXKr4dxs