VANCOUVER — Through a partnership with Google, Destination B.C. has launched an enhanced Google Maps feature on its BC Journeys platform. Detailed imagery of the province’s wild places are now featured on Google Maps, complemented with interviews with B.C. locals, imagery, drone footage, immersive 360° video, and featured businesses.
To complete this project, in 2016, Destination B.C. and their partners were loaned two Google Street View Trekkers — wearable backpacks outfitted with 15 separate cameras that collect 360° panoramic imagery in remote outdoor locations inaccessible by car. From June to September, teams from Destination B.C. and regional tourism partners from across the province, hiked the most remote parts of British Columbia, including the Canadian Rockies, the mystical islands of HaidaGwaii, through 10,000-year-old ice caves and by fossil dinosaur footprints. For 105 days, the Google Street View Trekker traversed 983 kilometres on almost 200 treks, travelling by foot, horse, boat, floatplane, and helicopter.
“This is the largest Trekker mapping project ever undertaken between a provincial tourism marketing organization and Google in Canada,” says Marsha Walden, CEO, Destination B.C. “Destination B.C. worked closely with its regional tourism partners to select unique locations that showcase British Columbia’s spectacular nature and exhilarating places.”
This is the largest Trekker mapping project ever undertaken between a provincial tourism marketing organization and Google in Canada. Destination BC worked closely with its regional tourism partners to select unique locations that showcase British Columbia’s spectacular nature and exhilarating places.
“The Google Trekker project and BC Journeys platform will give people across the world a first-hand look at B.C.’s beautiful terrain,” says Shirley Bond, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour. “We are seeing a record number of international visitors and we are widely recognized as a technology and creative industries hub. I’m sure even more people will be drawn to our province once they see these new state-of-the-art virtual recordings from Google and Destination B.C.”
There are currently 176 new B.C. Google Street View Treks now featured on Google Maps, with 14 more to be uploaded by Google.
