Turn discovering a city into an adventure game
The travel sector has been exploding with innovative ways to discover new countries, cities, and cultures. You can now find tours that cater to your specific passion, such a photography tours, biking tours, or dining tours. You can find the most creative services to help you discover new cities such as the London homeless-led tours, or street-art dedicated tours. There are even mobile apps that you can cheaply download that turn your handset into a museum-type guide throughout a city. The most creative service that I’ve found recently couples several of the about services together. It is from Italy and uses storytelling and gaming as a means to help people discover hidden secrets about the cities you are visiting while taking you on a unique sight-seeing tour around the “real” city.
The service is called Whai Whai and it focuses five cities in Italy: Rome, Venice, Florence, Verona, and Milan. Apparently they are also preparing a guide for New York City. The way it works is simple. Players begin by sending a text with a code indicated in the guide (for those with smartphones an app is available). They are given the option of desired length of play, difficulty level, and starting location. A series of enigmas are sent to the player where local knowledge is required to solve the problem before the next destination is revealed. As the adventure unfolds, you are treated to a unique narrative that brings to life the history of the city in the most creative and unexpected way.
Each guidebook can be played twice with a different set of challenges and stories. That way you can truly discover a complete and different perspective of the city. Players can also challenge friends to a game of “discover the city”. Instead of individual adventures there are two separate adventures that start and finish at the same location. That way you can see who discovers the city fastest. A bit like “The Amazing Race”.
I really love this service because I’m always looking to discover the underbelly of a city rather than the traditional tourist treks. Not only will you see the real heart of the city, but you may stumble on some fantastic dining experiences as well! Here is the website – http://www.whaiwhai.com/en/
