p/detour
Story-based walking tours. New from Andrew Mason, pre-launch
Andrew Mason
Detour 4.0 — Immersive audio walks, now in 17 cities
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Ryan Hoover
I could really use this in Barcelona right now. 😊 As AR/VR becomes a reality (pun intended) and widely adopted, what does Detour look like in the future, @andrewmason?
Andrew Mason
Hey @rrhoover! The way we're using AR is to bring something to life that the narrator is talking about - usually seeing what a point of interest / landscape used to look like. It's a pretty cool effect. We've always thought of what we do at Detour as aural augmented reality, and our focus will remain on audio, because, Her. But we think adding a little bit of visual spice here and there goes a long way :-)
Andrew Mason
Hello everyone! I'm Detour's founder / CEO, here to share our biggest update ever. Today’s release more than doubles Detour’s catalog to 120 cinematic audio tours. Now available in the most popular travel destinations in the U.S. & Western Europe, we're hoping Detour earns a spot on your travel checklist this summer. New tours are launching in New York City, London, Paris, Washington DC, Boston, New Orleans, Rome, Portland, Charleston, Savannah, and Washington D.C. And later this summer, we’ll launch in Tokyo and Seoul through our partnership with Airbnb, bring us up to 150 tours. Each walk reveals something about what makes each city unique, covering history, culture, art, food, and more. And like existing Detours from the likes of Ken Burns and Radiolab, each Detour features incredible storytelling and narrators that know their city best. Our new iOS app also features an augmented reality camera, video previews of all the tours, and a nice design refresh with tons of polish.
Nick Kwan
@andrewmason huge fan of detour, done almost all the routes with my family. Even my dad has to admit someone has finally one-upped his once untouchable Rick Steves guide 😂 Just wondering, do you ever worry about over-saturation of the routes? Just moved to Berlin though, I know what I'm doing this weekend!
Andrew Mason
@nwkwan thanks a lot! that'd be a good problem to have! If we get there, we have ideas on how we can yield manage / automatically pace the tours in a way that they don't feel oversaturated.
Ethan
It's funny because I was talking about this to a friend two days ago in Tokyo and we figured out we could launch a competitor as you had a hard time expanding. And here you are doing that 😂 I'll try that on my next trip, great product
Arieh Movtady
Weirdly addicted to your promo video. Question, what was the thought process on making tours in house rather than crowdsourcing from users? Also, do you ever see audio walkthroughs moving into new places like the gym, kitchen, museum, and so on?
Andrew Mason
@ariehmovtady wanted to start out by setting a high bar / showing what was possible / controlling quality. Eventual plan is to allow anyone to create / publish / sell Detours: platform.detour.com is currently in private beta, in use by museums like SFMOMA.
Leo Vogel 🇺🇳
Can not recommend this enough. I loved doing the Fisherman's Wharf and Castro Detours in San Francisco. I only wish they'd offer city packs where you pay a discounted price for all existing and future detours in a city.
Matt Horton
Love that you're finally in DC. We left SF for DC almost a year ago and really miss Detour!
Lyondhür Picciarelli
What do you guys need to bring it to New Zealand and how can I help? This can be a great hit here.
Amandine FLACHS
Just heard about Detour, if it is available in London I will definitely try it out between meetings! Love the idea as a walk addict (and a VR/AR enthusiast)!
Andrew Mason
@amandineflachs yes it's in London!
Docsie.io
Oh this is really cool. I will use this!