North Kingstown might not seem like a destination for cultural tourism – at least, not to those unaware of the town’s historic gems.
But Rhode Island-based One to One Tours has set out to change that with a two-hour audio tour that takes visitors to sites such as the birthplace of the portraitist Gilbert Stuart and the historic Smith’s Castle plantation, and through the historic streets of Wickford Village.
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Barbara Jackson, principal of the company, said she and co-founder David Kinlein chose North Kingstown for the first tour because she lives there, and they know the town well.
Also motivating them was a desire to highlight small towns in the United States that might not ever make it into a Frommer’s guide, Jackson said, though the company also is producing tours for large tourist cities such as Washington, D.C.
Other audio tours in production include South County, Newport, Annapolis, Md., and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The North Kingstown tour can be downloaded as an MP3 file from the company’s Web site, www.1to1tours.com, for $29.95. It also can be purchased as a CD, DVD and preloaded on an MP3 player.
“What we hope would come from it is more visibility,” said Margaret O’Connor, executive director of Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum. “These days people are getting more into getting things on the Internet. With the technology we have today, this is the way to go.”
Jackson said the company is encouraging the museums to put a link to the tours on their Web sites and providing them with free marketing materials to send to members.
One to One Tours also partnered with the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce to compose a marketing campaign for the tour. And Karla Driscoll, executive director, said the Chamber might add the audio tour to its gift certificate packages during the holidays.
“We’re very excited about it,” Driscoll said. “I think as we look at the new ways people find tourism destinations, and even for people in the state, this is a great alternative.”
One to One Tours works with Chambers and tourism councils in the areas where it is producing a tour because the company doesn’t want to compete with existing cultural and historic venues, Jackson said.
“We don’t want to put someone out of business,” she said. “We’re not out to poach the good stuff.”
One way to prevent working against the nonprofits is by making them part of the audio tours, which is why One to One Tours asked the docents at the historic venues in North Kingstown to write content and provide voices for much of the tour, Jackson said.
In exchange for their participation, One to One Tours gives the nonprofits a percentage of the sales of the audio tours. That way “they’re making money while promoting their attraction,” Jackson said.
“I find the best way to pay people is to let them enjoy the success,” she added. “It’s in everybody’s best interest.”
The challenge lies in editing and adding information that describes to people what is going on around them.
For example, when people are walking through historic Newport and the audio tour is telling them how the city has more preserved historic homes than many other Colonial-era communities, it is important to tell them why so many historic homes remain, Jackson said: because the city experienced an economic depression. No one had money to tear down the homes and build new.
Jackson added that because much of the tour involves explaining to people what they are looking at from the outside, it requires a knack for understanding how people individually process information.
“It’s about telling people what they’re looking at,” she said. “You have to tell them the obvious facts, and you have to make those facts come alive.” •
