Can we mix Local guides and Tourism ?

[DanielRmrzSnz]

Local guides help people to take decisions and find new spots, but how can we help tourist when they are visiting a new city? 

We could have some criteria that will help tourists and give them some guarantee that the place they are visiting is worthy!

What do you think about ?

[TraciC]

I think it's a great idea. I've seen some folks in various cities put together a My Map of Local Guides-approved places. 

For example, here's a crowdsourced burger map of NYC thanks to fellow Local Guides. If someone asks about burgers, we send them to that map. 

Now for city-specific items, here's another map I send to friends when they say, "I'm coming to NYC, what should I do?" It has different layers for different types of things (so less back and forth asking what they want to do) and even has a tab of vegan spots as recommended to me by other Local Guides. 

[HollyF]

Not to go off track too much, but... @TraciC Is there a way to integrate a city map that you have saved with a live map where you have starred items? Can you move starred items to the saved map on your phone? 

[HollyF]

@DanielRmrzSnz nice idea! I think that the concept of "worthy" is really slippery because everyone has different interests, hopes, and desires of travelling! Of course everyone wants to have a good time, but that may mean looking at ancient art or partying at an abandoned train station on the petit ceinture. The way that Google Maps is created now does a good job of capturing permanent structures and attractions but it does not capture temporary events, but maybe this is not the place for temporary events - yet? At any rate most people use the maps feature as their foundation to locate where they, how they can get back to where they are staying, and where they want to go to and where they can rest their tired feet. Perhaps the "explore around me" feature on Google maps could be expanded to include activities or sights? @TraciC has this been considered? 

[Ale5ander]

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@DanielR wrote:

We could have some criteria that will help tourists and give them some guarantee that the place they are visiting is worthy!

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And it's called a place rating and our reviews 😃

Eg few bars in Saint P. already posted screens of my reviews on Google Maps in their publics in social network.

[TraciC]

@HollyF There current is no way to move starred items to your map, but it's feedback we've shared and will continue to share with the product teams. Happy to also share the feedback about the explore feature, too. 

@Ale5ander Very cool! You're popular! 

[Ania · Accepted solution]

How about if in "explore" section would be sub section "recommended by Google Local Guide"? Then wherever you are at the time being you will get cool tips?

[Tchoa]

In the "Paris Local Guides" community, we have one blogger posting regularly, exposing places to shop or hang.

There are many bloggers who post about cities and city places, from many perpectives: fashion, shopping, tourism, sport, art, culture, etc.

It is said more and more people rely on those channels rather than the usual ones to travel now.

I think that the LG program could get a lot of benefit building stronger relations with bloggers.

One option would be to provide openly the code to embed a standardized "Local Guide Blogger recommended" banner (widget) into their blog pages that whould lead to the local place AND provide blog post sharing options.

[TraciC]

@Tchoa, @Ania Thanks for sharing the feedback which we'll share with the team! 

[Corrie]

Wow, I love reading all these great ideas!! Keep them coming, they help inspire us to create new features for you all 🙂