audio toursmarketingpodcasts

Turn Your Podcast into a Walking Tour: Lessons from Ant & Dec’s ‘Hanging Out’

ssees

2026-01-27

9 min read

Convert episodic podcasts into city walking tours—audience-first steps, 2026 tech, and a practical 30-day sprint inspired by Ant & Dec’s new show.

Turn Your Podcast into a Walking Tour: Lessons from Ant & Dec’s ‘Hanging Out’

Hook: You have an episodic podcast with loyal listeners—but your destination marketing budget is tight, your audiences crave in-person experiences, and your content feels stuck behind earbuds. What if each episode could become a city walking tour that turns listeners into local explorers, drives footfall, and creates new revenue streams?

In early 2026, entertainment duo Ant & Dec launched their first podcast, Hanging Out, after asking their audience what they wanted: “we just want you guys to hang out.” That simple, audience-first ask contains a destination-marketing playbook. This article unpacks how creators and destination marketers can adapt episodic, personality-led shows into immersive podcast tours and audio guides—with practical steps, 2026 tech trends, monetization models, and real-world examples you can implement this season.

Why turn podcasts into walking tours in 2026?

Audio-first tourism grew steadily through 2020–2025. In late 2025 and early 2026, three converging trends accelerated opportunity for destination marketers and creators:

Audience demand for blended digital/IRL experiences: Listeners want tangible ways to meet creators and experience stories in place.
Access to low-power spatial audio & geofencing APIs: Mobile SDKs and offline map features released in 2024–2025 made precise, energy-efficient audio triggers practical at scale.
Mainstream AI tooling: On-device personalization, multilingual auto-translation, and safe synthetic voice tools let creators scale localized tours without sacrificing authenticity—when used ethically.

Case in point: Ant & Dec as a template

Ant & Dec’s move to a conversational, audience-led podcast is instructive: their audience dictated the format. For destination marketers and creators, that’s the first lesson—design tours that begin with listener intent, not brand slogans. Imagine converting a Hanging Out episode into a “Behind the Shows” walk across a city: career launch spots, filming locations, favourite cafés—each stop becomes an episode chapter, a short audio file, and a shareable visual moment for social platforms.

"We asked our audience if we did a podcast what would they like it be about, and they said 'we just want you guys to hang out.'" — Declan Donnelly, Jan 2026

Step-by-step: Converting an episodic podcast into a city walking tour

1. Audit episodes for place-based hooks

Listen to your back catalogue and annotate every time a location, business, landmark, memory, or walk is mentioned. Tag timestamps and map them to specific coordinates. Ask:

Which episodes mention public places? (parks, theatres, stations)
Which moments invite a sensory experience? (smells, sounds, textures) — consider inspiration from micro-experience playbooks to design smell- and touch-led nodes.
What’s locally unique or controversial enough to spark curiosity?

2. Build a route that respects flow and attention

Create a route optimized for walking time, audio pacing, and moments of rest. Most listeners prefer 45–90 minute experiences for city walks. Structure each route as:

Intro node: Quick onboarding, short music sting, safety notes, and how to use offline mode.
Episode nodes: 3–8 short chapters (1–5 minutes each) triggered by GPS/geofence or manual tap.
Layered extras: Bonus interviews, archival clips, or photos unlocked at specific locations.

3. Adapt scripts for walking intimacy

Podcast speech often assumes passive listening. Walking audio needs directional cues and ambient awareness. Rewrite episode extracts into scene-based vignettes:

Replace long digressions with 30–90 second sensory beats.
Add localised signposts: "Turn left at the blue door" or "you’ll see the mural on your right."
Include micro-interactions: invite listeners to stop, look, or smell.

4. Record or remix for place

Shoot fresh recordings where possible—ambient sound anchors memories. If using original podcast audio, perform light edits for clarity and add context. Sound-design matters:

Use gentle crossfades between chapter audio and live ambience.
Incorporate binaural elements for immersive spots (benches, riverfronts).
Label AI-assisted voices and obtain talent consent if you generate or alter voices.

5. Choose your delivery tech: app, web, or both

Decide between a branded app or progressive web app (PWA). Tradeoffs:

Branded app: Best for premium features (tickets, merch, push notifications) and offline audio. Higher development and maintenance cost.
PWA: Lower friction—works instantly via browser and is indexable for SEO. Limited background geofencing but improving fast with 2025–26 browser APIs.

6. Implement geotriggers and fail-safes

Use a hybrid trigger system: geofence-based auto-play at key nodes plus manual chapter control. Make sure you include:

Bluetooth beacon fallback for indoor venues.
Offline maps and downloaded audio for low-connectivity areas.
Clear volume and safety reminders, and an option to disable auto-play.

7. Accessibility and localization

Deliver alternative formats and language options. In 2026, multilingual auto-translation with human review is standard. Provide:

Transcripts (use schema.org/AudioObject to improve SEO)
Closed captions for embedded video snippets
High-contrast maps and printable route PDFs

Designing an audience-first narrative: lessons from celebrity hosts

Celebrity-hosted podcasts like Ant & Dec’s show teach us two important principles for tours:

Familiarity breeds curiosity: audiences follow hosts’ personal stories into places they might otherwise ignore.
Parasocial trust unlocks IRL engagement: fans will attend a tour if they feel a direct connection with the host’s narrative voice.

Apply these by centering segments on personal memory, insider tips from hosts, and Q&A moments. A sample node might be: "Here’s where we filmed that mishap—listen to the clip and then try to spot the same alleyway sign the hosts mention." That invites discovery and social sharing.

Monetization and partnership models for podcast tours

Turning audio into revenue goes beyond ticket sales. Mix and match these models:

Freemium tours: Core route free; premium bonus chapters, archival footage, or behind-the-scenes interviews behind a paywall.
Local sponsorships: Partner with cafés, museums, or shops for paid stops and co-branded content.
Commerce & affiliate: Sell branded merch, photo prints, or partner with booking platforms for tied experiences.
White-labeling: Offer your tour engine to destination organizations or other creators for a licensing fee.
Ticketed creator events: Host live meetups or guided walks with the podcast hosts as premium add-ons.

Revenue example (illustrative)

A 60-minute premium walking tour priced at £8 with a modest conversion of 1,250 downloads/year yields £10k. With two local sponsors at £1k each and a single live event at £2,500, annual revenue can scale quickly while driving local partner value.

Promotion, SEO, and discoverability

Make the tour findable where travellers search. Key tactics:

Publish an SEO-optimized landing page with structured data: use AudioObject, TouristAttraction, and BreadcrumbList schemas for episodes and stops.
Create short-form clips (15–30s) from tour moments for TikTok and Reels with location tags and call-to-action to the tour landing page.
List tours on audio-tour marketplaces and DMO sites; pitch local blogs and travel writers for experiential features.
Leverage episode transcriptions to capture long-tail search for landmarks and host names—e.g., "Ant & Dec filming locations London tour."

Measuring impact: KPIs that matter

Track user behaviour across listening and site metrics. Priorities:

Footfall conversion: downloads-to-walkers percentage (survey or beacon confirmations)
Engagement depth: average chapters completed per user
Share rate: social shares per tour download
Partner value: in-store redemptions or sponsor impressions
Revenue per user: ARPU from direct and partner channels

Legal, ethical, and practical guardrails (2026 updates)

As audio tech matures, so do expectations and regulations. Keep these guardrails in 2026:

Consent for synthetic voices: If you use AI to recreate a host’s voice, secure explicit consent and label content clearly. The post-2024 landscape requires transparency about generated speech — see the EU synthetic media guidelines for policy context.
Privacy and geodata: Use aggregated analytics and give users easy opt-out for location tracking.
Local permits: For large guided tours or promoted meetups, check municipal permitting rules and noise ordinances.
Accessibility laws: Provide transcripts and alternative access to audio experiences for ADA compliance and good inclusion practice.

Production checklist: From podcast file to tour launch

Episode audit & mapping to places (spreadsheet of timestamps + GPS coordinates)
Route design and time testing (real walk-throughs)
Script edits and host approvals
On-location recording and ambient capture
Sound design and chaptering
Platform build (PWA or app) with offline audio & maps
Legal clearances and accessibility checks
Beta test with superfans and local partners
Launch with coordinated social, PR, and DMO cross-promotion

Example tour blueprint: "Hanging Out: A London Walk" (concept)

Using Ant & Dec’s audience-led voice, a hypothetical tour might include:

Intro at a central station: host welcome + safety tips (1 min)
Stop 1: Childhood neighbourhood—archival audio + host memory (3 min)
Stop 2: First TV set location—clip from original show + local guide tip (4 min)
Stop 3: Café where they rehearse—sponsor discount unlocked via app (2 min)
Stop 4: Iconic filming alley—binaural soundscape and photo prompt (5 min)
Bonus: Off-route video clips & Q&A with hosts for premium users

Advanced strategies and future-proofing (2026+)

To stay ahead in 2026, build modular assets and a creator ecosystem:

Modular audio assets: Produce short, reusable clips (30–90s) that can be recombined into different tours or language variants.
Creator partner program: Invite local creators to make micro-tours tied to episodes—expands inventory and local authenticity. Field reviews of compact live-stream kits show how street creators can capture and amplify UGC for tour promotion.
Data-driven personalization: Use on-device models to tailor route suggestions (quiet path vs. photo-heavy route) without compromising privacy — see edge-first approaches to on-device personalization.
Cross-medium story arcs: Link each episode-tour to an Instagram Story trail and a TikTok hashtag challenge to boost UGC and discoverability. For festival-sized activations, consult hybrid festival playbooks for staged cross-channel programs.

Final takeaway: Make the listener the local

Turning episodic podcasts into walking tours is less about repackaging audio and more about translating intimacy into place. Celebrity-hosted podcasts like Ant & Dec’s Hanging Out show the power of audience-led formats: when listeners feel invited, they’ll follow hosts into the city—and bring friends.

Actionable starter plan (30-day sprint):

Week 1: Audit 10 episodes for place-based hooks and map 15 candidate stops.
Week 2: Draft a 60–75 minute route, create scripts for 6 chapters, secure one local sponsor.
Week 3: Record on-location audio and ambient sounds; assemble a beta build (PWA).
Week 4: Run a paid pilot with 20 superfans, collect feedback, and finalize launch assets.

Closing call-to-action

Ready to turn your podcast into a place-based experience that drives footfall, grows revenue, and deepens audience loyalty? Start your 30-day sprint today: map your first five place-mentions and sketch a 60-minute route. If you want a checklist PDF and launch template tailored to your city and podcast episodes, subscribe or get in touch—we’ll help you build a pilot that listeners will walk and remember.

sees

Contributor

Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.