Does Google Street View kill tourism?

By Mark Frary

Google this week announced that it was adding “Street View“ imagery covering 75 miles of trails in the Grand Canyon to Google Maps. This Arizona natural wonder is one of America’s biggest tourist attractions, welcoming more than 4 million people every year.

The announcement means Google Maps is pushing the boundaries once more and makes this an even more interesting proposition for travel and tourism marketers.

Why so? Well, you may not know this but Google runs a partner programme which allows anyone to request Google to come and take stitched-together photographs and embed them into Google Maps and its 3D sister Google Earth.

Google says that the main criterion for acceptance is that the imagery would prove “interesting” to its users. It says, “Some of the properties that we are currently interested in include zoos, parks, universities, amusement parks, outdoor marketplaces, monuments, and tourist destinations.” The marketing teams for these attractions and others, such as historic hotels, will welcome the opportunity to get some free promotion; the programme even allows you to embed the imagery onto your own website. What’s not to like about that?

Although most of the Google Street View imagery is collected by special cars fitted out with multiple cameras that take footage as they drive around, Google also collects images from the back of snowmobiles and, in the case of the Grand Canyon, 20 kilo Android-powered backpacks with a 15-lens camera attached.

To have a look at what they achieved, take a virtual hike along Bright Angel Trail, explore 360-degree panoramas, the steep South Kaibab Trail or view Meteor Crater.

Google maintains a gallery showing some of the most interesting attractions which include ski resorts, the Great Barrier Reef, UNESCO World Heritage sites and more.

With more and more of the world’s tourism attraction finding their way onto Google Maps, it raises the question of what it does for tourism. On one hand, it lessens the mystique surrounding some of the most spectacular places on the planet, perhaps reducing the desire to travel.

I’m with the other crowd who think that these images help guide your aspirations. It is like the difference between listening to a track on your iPod and going to a live gig – there is no competition. If the images can help record and conserve some of these attractions for future generations then all the better.