Falkirk Explored
Did someone say communities build destinations? Well, it's true
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Unique content
- Unique content created by members of local heritage and nature groups
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In-location experience
- Improved in-location experience for visitors
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Visitor insights
- Powerful in-location visitor insights to enrich destination management
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Local community
- A local community richer and healthier for letting all residents have a sense of knowing and belonging
The Challenge
Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the town of Falkirk in the Scottish Lowlands received funding as part of the Great Place Scheme. The programme aimed to promote heritage in local communities and enable heritage organisations to deliver initiatives to achieve this.
In line with these goals, the Falkirk Community Trust – responsible for delivering the programme – wanted to create a digital product that would promote their belief in the strength of community engagement and community-led content when building a destination.
To achieve this, their app needed to be able to support a wealth of community stories, local heritage information, walking routes and innovative technology to bring the past into the present.
Making it together
Working with the Falkirk Community Trust and alongside the local community, we created an app that shone a spotlight on the town’s culture, history and heritage.
Our content-management platform, My Whereverly, played a key role in allowing the community to access the tools and workflows needed to curate their content.
The app includes:
- 11 audio tours narrated by members of local heritage groups
- Three cycling routes
- Over 100 heritage POIs chosen by the community
- A canal tour with 18 badges to collect
- Ten AR experiences
- Two 360° tours to let visitors see locked spaces
- A Photo Journal
- Works online and offline
- In-location visitor behaviour analytics
Outcome
Upon its launch, the Falkirk Explored app became the scheme’s focal point and helped to take the subsequent Canal Encounters Festival in 2021 digital. The app evolved to encompass an interactive tour along the canal between the Falkirk Wheel and Helix Visitor Centre. The app included badge collection, AR models and audio for people to enjoy during the summer festival and beyond.
In addition to playing an important role in the success of the Falkirk Great Place scheme, the app became a tool to engage the local community as content creators and app users. The app has been used by thousands of locals to discover and visit new places, and shows the power of community-led content in building a destination.
