BRITISH PUBLIC VOTE FOR THE BEST SPOTS FOR THE STREET VIEW TRIKE TO VISIT

[London, 18 May 2090] People around the world will be inspired by an even wider variety of British destinations as national tourism agency VisitBritain helps Google take its Street View technology beyond the nation’s towns and cities.

Feedback from people around the UK indicates that Britons want to showcase famous landmarks beyond the 25 towns and cities currently captured. As a result, Google is giving people a sneak preview of its latest groundbreaking invention – the Google Trike. This mechanical masterpiece comprises 3 bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image collecting gadgetry. It comes replete with a very athletic cyclist in customised Google apparel. The Trikes have the same capability as Street View cars for collecting street-level imagery and are designed to help Google make special imagery collections in places less accessible by car.

Google and VisitBritain are asking the British public to suggest tourist spots, such as historic castles or famous landmarks, that the trike might visit to ultimately showcase the destination to the world. People can submit suggestions in five categories: Castles, Coastal Paths, Natural Wonders, Historic Buildings & Monuments, and (Sports) Stadiums. These will be narrowed down to a shortlist for the public to vote for the three locations the Google Trike will visit first. Submit suggestions at maps.google.co.uk/streetviewinfo.

Overseas residents made 6.3 million visits to the UK in the first quarter of the year – a fall of 13 per cent –highlighting the very real challenge facing inbound tourism as international travel suffers from the impact of the global economic downturn. Working with Google Street View, undertaking innovative partnerships and exploring new ways of presenting the appeals of Britain can give the country an edge. The partnership is part of VisitBritain’s strategy to ensure visitors are enticed to explore Britain. As well as helping plan a trip, Street View adds an extra element to the memories that visitors will share with friends and family when they return home – potentially inspiring them to visit in turn.

Justin Reid, Head of Online Marketing for VisitBritain said: “We were only too happy to join forces with Google for the UK launch of Street View, which is already helping raise awareness of destinations around Britain. Unfortunately, we previously haven’t been able to showcase one of Britain’s core appeals: such as our countryside, coastline and historic monuments. The new trike will enable us to showcase even more of these wonderful destinations and we look forward to some great ideas from the public.”

A Google spokeswoman said: “Street View has been a hit for British tourism with images of 25 UK cities, now we want to make it an even better for showing off our amazing history and culture. The trike is designed to go down footpaths and tracks to get images of areas of natural beauty or tourist sites. The trike will be here in UK for just a short while in the summer so in order to pick the very best spots we're asking the public to get involved and tell us where they want us to go. We want it to be a really fun new aspect of the website – depending on what the public vote for, users will be able to virtually tour castles or monuments before visiting – or check out which side of a football stadium they need to be on before leaving the house.”

The trike will be starting in Genoa, Italy where Google will be making the most of the good weather to collect images. The trike is expected to land on British shores later in the summer and, due to operational factors such as light levels and the weather (and what could be a pretty tired cyclist), will only be in the UK for a limited time. Images will be processed and carefully stitched together – a technological process that can take several months – before being made available at a later date in Street View on Google Maps.

Try it for yourself at www.maps.google.co.uk/streetview.

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