Digital Travel Guidance Versus Personal Tour Guides

By Susanne Egermeier and Claudia Mitteneder

Between App and Eye Level

For many travellers today, a glance at their smartphone has replaced a conversation with a tour guide. Whether it's a GPS-guided audio tour through Old Havana or an AI-assisted chatbot for tips on restaurants in Nairobi – digital travel guides offer independence, flexibility and often more spontaneity. They are easy to access, work in several languages, can be customised and usually cost little or no money. That makes them an enticing tool for last-minute tourists, solo travellers and budget holidaymakers alike.

Yet useful as these digital tools may be, they also have their blind spots. In the Global South in particular, personal encounters and local perspectives often play a vital role in shaping the travel experience – something that apps and AI systems can only support to a limited extent.

More Than Facts Alone: The Human Component

Anyone who has ever travelled with a dedicated local guide will understand the difference. An app can tell travellers that the square in Marrakech has been a trading centre for centuries. A person can show them which stall sells the best spices, while sharing a childhood memory or casually teaching them how to win over the locals with a short greeting. Studies by Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung e.V. clearly show: 90 percent of German people who have experienced travel in developing countries not only expect knowledge from their travel guide, but above all organisational and problem solving capabilities. 82 percent value personal support – the ability to respond to specific requests or sudden challenges on location. (Egermeier, von Laßberg, Mitteneder, Tuncer, Vielhaber, 2021) Although digital products provide structured information that is also generally up-to-date, they cannot respond to what happens between the lines: the nerves as you stand in front of a confusing bus station, the misunderstandings in a market hall, the spontaneous desire to explore a side street.

Technical Limits of Digital Systems

In the Global South especially, the extent to which digital travel guides depend on a stable technical infrastructure quickly becomes apparent. Travellers in the Andes, in northern Uganda or on a group of islands in Indonesia cannot assume that an app will work reliably. In many rural regions, internet and GPS are patchy or only available at high cost. In Latin America, for instance, only around 37 percent of the rural population can access it, compared to 71 percent in cities (Ziegler, 2020); in many developing and emerging countries, access to truly reliable digital connectivity in rural areas is only around 5 percent (Rodríguez Pulgarín & Woodhouse, 2022). Maps can freeze, loading times can drag on indefinitely – and in those crucial moments, the screen remains blank.

Automated translations can also be misleading. Anyone trying to understand local terms using an app can quickly come across linguistic and cultural misinterpretations that may be amusing at best but can lead to misunderstandings at worst. In addition, digital services tend to work best where infrastructure is already well developed, thereby favouring destinations that are already more established for tourism. This can create a distorted perception among travellers. Lesser-known but equally fascinating destinations remain invisible because they have little digital presence.

Finally, there is the issue of data protection. Many apps rely on location tracking, collect movement data or link travel information with users' personal preferences. In countries with weak data protection legislation, it is often unclear how these data are used and by whom – an aspect that is frequently overlooked when using digital services.

Depth and Emotion Beyond the Superficial

In theory, digital platforms should be able to cover every relevant aspect, from architectural history to human rights. In practice, however, they are often limited to what they can present in a short, clear form. A survey by Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung e. V. shows that 84 percent of travellers with experience of developing countries want information about places of interest, 80 percent want information about appropriate behaviour in the host country and 69 percent want information about history (Egermeier, von Laßberg, Mitteneder, Tuncer, & Vielhaber, 2021).

In principle, these topics can also be communicated in digital travel guides. However, more than half of travellers also have an interest in deeper insights into human rights, gender issues, environmental problems or the political and economic situation. Such topics require sensitivity. A human guide can provide context, establish references to the current situation and address any uncertainties in the conversation. An app usually remains neutral and vague on controversial points.

Good guides are not just knowledge brokers, but storytellers. They arouse curiosity, tie things in with personal experiences and create emotional moments that stay in the memory. This type of communication plays a central role in the training received by professional tour guides today – and will only become more central in the future, as it is exactly what differentiates the role from purely information-focussed apps. Thus personal tour guides are able not only to deepen knowledge, but also to actively break down prejudices, broaden perspectives and promote intercultural understanding and empathy – something a digital guide cannot.

Interactions and Responsibility on Location

People travelling in the Global South are often not just looking for beautiful scenery, but for authentic encounters with other people too. Many travellers want to find out what everyday life is like away from the tourist centres – in villages, workshops and markets. Such encounters are often spontaneous and depend on the initiative and contacts of a local tour guide.

Personal tour guides are far more than just a source of information in this regard: they are an active part of the tourism ecosystem. They create jobs, keep knowledge alive and can channel visitor flows in a way that protects sensitive sites. In community-based tourism projects, guides are often directly involved in local development initiatives. They do not just take guests to tourist attractions but also to craft businesses, agricultural cooperatives or cultural centres, whose income flows directly back into the community.

This role is particularly crucial in economically underdeveloped areas. Tourism can be one of the few stable sources of income in such places – provided that the value it creates stays in the region. Furthermore, personal tour guides play a significant role in preserving intangible cultural heritage: they recount local myths, teach local crafts and enable guests to take part in rituals and festivals that would perhaps be forgotten if there were no intercultural interest. At the same time, they ensure that these encounters remain respectful and avoid a voyeuristic gaze.

Digital platforms can document such aspects, but can rarely convey them in their original, living form. Direct exchange is crucial – the story is not just heard but experienced together, with gestures, facial expressions and the atmosphere of the moment.

Travellers Have Different Needs

Not all people who have experience of travelling in developing and emerging countries want the same thing. A study on tourism in developing and emerging countries (Tourismus in Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern; Egermeier, von Laßberg, Mitteneder, Tuncer & Vielhaber, 2021) identifies five groups of travellers with experience in developing countries who differ considerably in their interest in encounters, information and context:

• Type 1: Holidaymakers with no interest in interaction – Limited interest in information about the country and its people, with a clear lack of interest in living conditions or the social and political situation. Basic digital information is usually sufficient for orientation.
• Type 2: Holidaymakers who are undecided or somewhat uninterested in interaction – Clear interest in information about the country and its people, but only limited interest in broader social and political contexts. Digital travel guides generally work well for this group.
• Type 3: Holidaymakers who are interested in interaction and travel in an organised way – Strong interest in information as well as in living conditions and the social and political situation. This group particularly benefits from qualified tour guides who can provide context and facilitate encounters.
• Type 4: Independent travellers with a strong interest in interaction – Comparatively limited interest in prior information about the country and its people, and very little interest in guided tours. Hybrid models are particularly attractive: digital tools that support independent travel, complemented by local guidance to facilitate encounters.
• Type 5: Holidaymakers with an exceptionally strong interest in interaction – Strong interest in information about the country and its people, combined with a very strong interest in living conditions and the social and political situation. Personal tour guides are difficult to replace for this group – particularly in community-based tourism.

Personal tour guides are particularly important for Types 3 and 5. Type 4 travellers can be reached through well-designed hybrid models. Types 1 and 2 are more likely to rely on easily accessible digital information but can still be positively surprised through sensitive, low-threshold interpretation and guidance on site.

Hybrid Models in Practice

More and more tour operators are finding effective ways to combine the strengths of both approaches – digital support and personal tour guides. For instance, guests on expedition cruises or themed cultural trips are often provided with an app containing maps, background information and practical tips before departure. Once on site, experienced guides take over: they build on travellers' prior knowledge, adapt to changing situations and create space for questions. This combination works particularly well on complex journeys, such as expeditions to remote regions, educational tours requiring in-depth knowledge or project-based trips focusing on encounters with local partners. Digital tools support travellers before and after the journey, while personal tour guides create the experience itself.

On a gorilla trek in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, for example, visitors first receive a short briefing from park rangers. Digital maps provide a general idea of the route, but only experienced guides know where the gorilla families are likely to be on that particular day. They read fresh tracks through the forest – broken bamboo stalks, remains of nests – and communicate with other teams by radio. Along the way, they explain the personalities of individual gorillas and the conservation projects designed to combat poaching. An app may provide biological facts, but it cannot replace the moment when a guide quietly signals you to crouch because a silverback is only a few metres away.

Conclusion and Outlook

It would be too simplistic to play digital and personal travel guides off against each other. Digital tools are invaluable for orientation, accessing up-to-date information and overcoming language barriers. Advances in artificial intelligence are also opening up new possibilities: AI can support guides in both preparing and delivering tours – for example, by adapting routes flexibly or providing context-specific information during the journey. At the same time, digital learning modules can help prepare travellers for cultural contexts and appropriate behaviour before they depart. Hybrid models that combine technology with personal guidance are therefore likely to become increasingly important.

Especially in the Global South, with its diversity of cultural, social and ecological realities, personal contact can make the difference between a pleasant trip and a truly transformative experience. Digital travel guides are valuable tools, but personal tour guides are bridge builders: one provides information, the other creates understanding. Both are therefore essential elements of responsible travel. Anyone who truly wants to understand a destination should not only look at a screen but also listen to the people who live there. In the end, it is these encounters that remain long after the battery has run out. Technology can point the way – but only people can open the door to genuine encounters.

Susanne Egermeier is a project manager at Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung e. V. She studied Business Administration with a focus on Tourism Management at Munich University of Applied Sciences and started her professional career in the travel and marketing industry. She is responsible for research at Studienkreis and is primarily involved in analysing the German travel market and publishing on sustainable tourism.

Claudia Mitteneder is the Managing Director of Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung e. V. After completing a degree in Business Administration at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, she worked in marketing and sales in the aviation sector, later headed a tour operator specialising in group and media travel, and founded her own marketing agency. Since 2015, she has been responsible for the strategic direction of Studienkreis and is a member of the trainer team of the Intercultural Tour Guide Qualification.

First published in: Brot für die Welt – Tourism Watch (2025). Digital Trends in Tourism – Between Algorithms and Exploitation (Analysis 116). The version published here is an abridged version of the original text.