THE STORY
OF ELECTRONIC TOUR GUIDE
Whenever I arrived in a new city, I’d always want to have an unhurried, leisurely stroll through its side streets and learn something new, totally different from the well-known facts or basic historical details found on the Internet. Paper and online guide books would only provide me with a short and very dry description of the sights, which I had to filter through to choose the ones to visit and plan my whole route in advance. Tour operators would foist on me ready-made walking tours along the same all-too-well-trodden tourist routes, or bus tours in the company of disoriented gawkers like myself – or, at best, expensive tours with a private guide. None of these options suited me, so I would often pick some sight as a starting point and just wander off from there wherever my feet would take me. This way I could get a feel for the city’s true spirit and immerse myself in its authentic atmosphere, not encumbered with the tourist fetish.
It was during one of my flights to Prague (the city where I spent a big part of my life) that I had an idea: wouldn’t it be possible to tell me about the city without having me plan a strict route and look at the map? It’d be just like having a knowledgeable companion by my side, someone who’d tell me all about it and suggest alternative, lesser-known paths that are not so worn-out by tourists. That is how the idea of the interactive city audioguide was born.
Dmitriy Shalnov, creator of Electronic Tour Guide