English Podcast Tours as Interpretative Media

One of the dynamic forms of the interpretive medium has involved podcast tours, which represent an innovative digital tool of engaging visitors with educational and cultural information in tourism. This paper discusses the use of podcasts as a means of delivering interpretive information normally provided for guided tours. Examines how podcasts improve accessibility, encourage deeper engagement through digital listening content, and how they compensate for the lack of use of English as a lingua franca for communication between foreign visitors and tour guides. To this end, the research aims to analyze the influence of podcast tours in English as digital tools in interpretive communication with foreign visitors in Nueva Loja Tourist Park, Sucumbíos province. An exploratory research method was used by changing guide written scripts into auditory information and measuring the results through interviews and surveys with tourist guides and foreign visitors in the park. The results suggest that podcast tours can never replace face-to-face experiences, yet they may be a necessary complement. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential for podcast tours to innovate and extend interpretive media in tourism in terms of technologies.