Covid-19 adaptations introduce four new initiatives including haunted dolls, Alexa app, streaming ghost tours at home, and self-guided mobile app
1. Ghostflix
This Halloween season, sit back, eat some snacks, and enjoy both live streaming and pre-recorded guided ghost tours at home. River City Ghosts has made their popular ghost tour of Downtown San Antonio available across the country, launching GhostFlix, an on-demand streaming platform for haunted experiences across the country. Since launching in July, hundreds of viewers have tuned in to walk with local guides through over fifteen cities across the US to visit their most haunted locations and hear their most terrifying stories. Viewers no longer have to travel across the country to experience River City Ghosts tour, or explore other haunted destinations across the nation. Guests can type questions and hear answers from passionate local guides who lead the in-person tours or experience past ghost tours in the city of their choice on demand. Shows start at $13 for on-demand tours, or $15 for live streamed tours.
To watch a tour, viewers may visit www.rivercityghosts.com/ghostflix.
2. Lily: Host a ghost
This October, set the mood by welcoming a new friend into your house. Her name is Lily, and she’s a haunted doll and effigy, following a Viking tradition to ward off evil spirits. She is modeled after the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, commonly referred to as the female Dracula. She is surprisingly effective at both warding off ghosts and scaring your friends.
A terrified person contacted the team with reports of a doll that she found outside her apartment and brought inside. It would move on its own and turn lights off and on. She couldn’t stand it anymore and sent it to the River City Ghosts team. After videos captured it moving on its own, and people saw it, demand grew for people to host Lily at their own home. Thus was born a Halloween season tradition used to scare friends and family, and to ward off other ghosts. This year, everyone can use Lily in their home: on a porch, by a nightlight, or put her on a shelf. Lily is the “Elf on the Shelf” for Halloween season and can be found at www.rivercityghosts.com/lily
3. Turn Your Phone into a Ghost Tour Guide with iOS and Android App.
The ultimate social distanced tour
River City Ghosts was forced to shut down in-person led tours for months due to COVID-19. In response, the company launched an iOS and Android app that turns your phone into a tour guide. The app combines actor narrated voice, images, video, text, GPS triggers, voice navigation, and a map and route. Guests can now enjoy self-guided tours on location, using the app to walk them through the streets to each haunted location, whenever, and with whomever they want.
The app will take users to the Riverwalk, where dozens of ghosts lurk under the picturesque river scene or to La Villita, where a crazy doctor boiled heads in his front yard to study the skulls, and the smell lingers to this day. In addition to San Antonio, the app also lets users take ghost tours in cities across the country. An engrossing audio narrative and spooky images bring the fun, informative and creepy atmosphere of the tour to wherever you happen to take the tour.
4. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant Voice Apps
Just in time for Halloween season, River City Ghosts has launched the first voice app to tell ghost stories on Amazon Alexa and Google Home. The voice app lets people to listen to ghost stories from any device equipped with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, delivering over 100 voice actor narrated ghost stories from over 20 cities. To use the app, simply say the invocation words:
River City Ghosts offers guided walking ghost tours year-round. Founded in 2018, River City Ghosts delivers entertaining ghost tours with stories largely rooted in history and real world hauntings and events, a foundation for authenticity rooted in well-researched ghost stories and interviews with people who have experienced hauntings. Tours are popular with visitors and locals alike and offer fun for all ages. Tickets start at $12. For more information, visit www.rivercityghosts.com/
