Holy City tours go high-tech

You name it, it'll go on an iPod — or a wireless phone, for that matter. Music. Photos. Movies.

You can even listen to someone reading today's New York Times.

So it was only a matter of time before an entrepreneur squeezed the streets of Charleston into one of those slick little devices — its crannies and cobblestones, its scenery and stories.

CityTrex photo

Phil Sellers' company, CityTrex LLC, has launched two Charleston "iTours," and two more are planned.

At least two companies recently started selling downloadable audio tours of downtown Charleston, invading the province of some 350 guides who have done business the old-fashioned way, by pounding the pavement or driving a carriage.

CityTrex LLC, a Savannah-based company, launched two "iTours" of Charleston in recent weeks, and plans to plug in two more in the next month or so. The company, founded by longtime Savannah tour guide Phil Sellers, started selling

similar programs in its home city in 2006.

"We knew then that it was going to be a growing field," Sellers said. "It's really just the merger of technology and tourism."

City officials said Friday that they were not aware of the new digital tours. Vanessa Turner-Maybank, director of the Charleston Office of Tourism Management, said city attorneys will check in the next few days to see if the iTours are compatible with municipal code.

A rash of Web sites, including talkingstreet.com, soundwalk.com, audisseyguides.com and audiosteps.com, are now hawking digital tours for bigger U.S. cities. Even the Vatican's Sistine Chapel has latched on to the technology, ditching headsets and staff in favor of guides that can be downloaded or dialed up on cell phones.

CityTrex's Charleston jaunt costs $15 and comes with a digital map that directs consumers to the pineapple fountain in Waterfront Park.

Once the audio tour is activated, the voice of Ed Macy, a veteran local tour guide and author, instructs listeners to gaze across Charleston Harbor to Fort Sumter, where the first casualty of the Civil War died in an accidental munitions explosion.

By pointing out landmarks, Macy guides people down Unity Alley, through Queen Street, up Meeting Street and back to Waterfront Park on Cumberland Street, noting interesting architecture and telling stories along the way.

Sellers said the format is a hit with young, tech-savvy adults, as well as locals who want to learn about their hometown without falling in with a herd of tourists. CityTrex is producing similar tours for Daufuskie Island, Parris Island and Beaufort. The company hopes eventually to offer guides to Asheville and Wilmington, N.C., and provide translations in French and German.

"We plan to digitize as much of the Southeast as we can, especially the historic aspect," Sellers said.

New Orleans-based City Soundtracks LLC also is selling two tours of Charleston. The Web firm has programs for Boston, Philadelphia, the Big Easy, Savannah and Washington, D.C.

Traditional tour guides — those who deal in yarns and shoe leather — are more skeptical than scared.

John LaVerne, whose Bulldog Tours employs 15 people, said his company has booked a record amount of business so far this month. He noted that an iPod can't answer questions or corral a wayward child.

"I honestly think that people enjoy having a live person in front of them," LaVerne said.

Still, LaVerne acknowledged that his outfit could lose some market share and have to adapt to digital competition. "Who knows?" he said.

Bobbie Gattuso, president of the National Federation of Tourist Guide Associations, said many producers of digital tours are not accredited tour guides. New Orleans and Charleston have some of the oldest regulations in the country for licensing tour guides.

Both cities require would-be guides to pass tests on the names, dates, architecture and events that define the area. In Charleston, about 100 people take the test every year, while 350 actively lead tours. Regulating a virtual guide, however, would be difficult.

"Of course, we're bothered by it ... but we don't really have any control over it," Gattuso said. "Our premise is that a local, knowledgeable, trained guide can give a more personable tour than a machine can."

Reach Kyle Stock at 937-5763 or kstock@postandcourier.com.