November Industry Update: App use rates, tourism expectations, and digital reckonings

With summer behind us, we've seen tourism skyrocket both domestically and internationally since the onset of the pandemic. Tourism predictions for this upcoming winter holiday season anticipate travel to be just as high if not higher, with many family and friends choosing to reunite for the first time since the pandemic. How might this impact museums and cultural institutions, and how can you prepare for 2023 given travel and tourism "is back"?

The Guru Experience Co. team has been busy helping museum professionals, from California to D.C., rethink mobile guides for their visitor experience. Check out some snapshots of our recent travels! 

Some institutions have led the way in redefining and reimagining their visitor experiences with a heavy focus on digital. Read on for more inspirational projects to get your own creative gears turning.  

• Museum app use rates: App use has increased significantly since the years prior to the pandemic. Whether it's become a normalized human behavior or that museums are putting more thoughtful and well-marketed apps forward, download rates are skyrocketing. Click here to read more. 

• House museums lose docents, but gain digital interactivity: this article from AAM explores how a house museum approached its struggle to staff docents on account of the pandemic, and dealt with the reckoning that in-person interpretation could no longer be the sole tour tool. A digital experience became a "must-have". 

• Disney shows it's hand on its plans for metaverse experiences: Disney is always worth watching for inspiration, given many of their innovations in storytelling drive audience's experiential expectations beyond the Disney brand. In regards to plans for Disney+ "This is the so-called metaverse – which I believe is the next great storytelling frontier and the perfect place to pursue our strategic pillars of storytelling excellence, innovation, and audience focus."