Tourism has always been about experiences. But in today’s hyper-digital world, simply offering a beautiful view or a cultural site isn’t enough. Travelers, especially younger generations, expect interactive, personalized, and memorable journeys. That’s where gamification comes in, a trend that started in marketing, education, and healthcare, and is now reshaping tourism worldwide.

As a game studio working at the intersection of design and travel, we believe that the tourism industry stands on the brink of a gamified revolution. By weaving playful elements into destinations, tours, apps, and loyalty programs, we can transform how visitors engage with places and brands. A recent academic study¹ (Xu, Buhalis & Weber, 2017) provides one of the first systematic reviews of this phenomenon. Let’s unpack its insights, and explore what they mean for the future of tourism.

Before diving into tourism, let’s clarify: gamification isn’t about turning everything into a video game. Instead, it’s about applying game design elements, such as challenges, rewards, role play, or immersive storytelling, in non-game contexts. In tourism, that means transforming sightseeing, learning, or even booking a flight into an engaging, motivating, and fun experience. Think of it as adding a “play layer” to travel, one that turns ordinary interactions into meaningful adventures.

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Case Studies

Raising Destination Awareness

Destinations are using gamified campaigns to reach travelers long before they pack their bags.

• Ireland Town (sponsored by Ireland’s Tourism Board) let Facebook players explore attractions and win trips.
• Smile Land Thailand, launched by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, placed iconic landmarks and brands inside a playful Facebook game, targeting young digital-savvy travelers.
• Brazil Quest, tied to the FIFA World Cup, immersed players in Brazilian culture and cityscapes.

These projects show how “advergames” don’t just entertain, they create familiarity, spark wanderlust, and subtly build loyalty.

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Enhancing On-Site Experiences

Gamification can turn a passive sightseeing tour into an active quest.

• In Regensburg, Germany, the REXplorer app invited tourists to role-play as assistants to a virtual character, interacting with historic buildings while solving challenges. The result? Deeper learning and more memorable visits.
• Hong Kong’s City Walks app rewarded tourists with digital stamps for completing themed walking tours, blending cultural exploration with playful achievement.
• Augmented reality (AR) apps in Tuscany, Scotland, and Athens now allow visitors to experience immersive reconstructions of ancient sites, creating sensory and imaginative immersion beyond traditional guided tours.

Driving Engagement and Interaction

Games like Geocaching and Sighter transform entire landscapes into treasure hunts. These location-based experiences encourage tourists to actively search, photograph, and share hidden gems. Engagement becomes not just personal, but social, driving word-of-mouth marketing.

Building Loyalty

Airlines and hotels are using gamification to take loyalty programs beyond miles and points.

• Air Canada’s “Earn Your Wings” app gamified frequent flyer perks with leaderboards, pit stops, and competitive challenges.
• Starwood Hotels integrated Foursquare check-ins into their rewards system, blending digital play with physical stays.

Instead of passive point collection, loyalty becomes a dynamic, fun-driven competition.

Why It Works: The Psychology of Play

Tourism gamification works because it taps into three fundamental human needs, as described by Self-Determination Theory:

1. Relation – connecting with others through shared experiences.
2. Competence – feeling skilled, progressing, and achieving goals.
3. Autonomy – having freedom of choice and identity, often expressed through avatars or personalized journeys.

Travel is already about discovery, challenge, and connection. Gamification simply amplifies those motivators, making the journey more interactive and rewarding.

The Future of Gamified Tourism

Gamification is still young in tourism, but it’s growing fast. Emerging technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI-driven personalization will supercharge its potential. Imagine a museum where visitors collect digital artifacts to unlock hidden stories, a city where every street corner hides a challenge connected to local history or aloyalty app where returning guests build evolving narratives tied to their journeys. As Pokémon GO demonstrated, when play and place converge, engagement can skyrocket. Tourism is the perfect stage for the next wave of location-based, immersive play.

Tourism has always been about exploration, storytelling, and memory-making. Gamification adds a powerful new dimension, turning travel into a game where visitors don’t just consume experiences, they co-create them. For destinations and businesses, the message is clear: playful design isn’t a gimmick, it’s a strategy. For travelers, it’s an invitation to see the world not just as a place to visit, but as a playground to explore. At our game studio, we believe the future of tourism lies in playful journeys. By blending psychology, design, and technology, we can help destinations transform trips into adventures, brands into companions, and memories into stories worth sharing. The world is waiting to be played. Let’s design the games that make it unforgettable.

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¹https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261517716302369?via%3Dihub