Submitted by James Bynoe, Senior Cyber Security Consultant
Today using Google Earth you can zoom into most neighbourhoods and business districts in Barbados and with just the click of a mouse you get beautiful “helicopter” type views of Barbados beaches, hotels, roads, homes, and more. The level of detail provided by Google Earth is often quite amazing due to leading edge satellite and advanced imaging technology.
“However no Caribbean nation today had its newest feature called “Street View” which I believe could be a huge innovation boost to the tourist industry in Barbados and across the region…” – excerpt from Google:
Street View imagery is gathered by cars, or other platforms, equipped with advanced imaging technology. Once the photographs have been taken, they go through computer processing to make them ready for showing on Google Earth “Street View”. The photos are then “stitch” together to make the 360-degree panorama that you see on Google Earth “Street View”. Cutting-edge face and license plate blurring technology is also used to help ensure that passers-by in the photographs can’t be identified.
Google Earth’s Street View would provide potential visitors to Barbados with the ability to explore hotels, beaches and more through a 360-degree street-level view in addition to the current “helicopter” view provided by Google Earth for the region. From the comfort of their homes potential visitors would be able to view locations in Barbados to help make that final decision, as they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
Barbados and no other Caribbean nation have the Google Earth “Street View” capability. By using street view millions of potential visitors to Barbados would be able to view locations in Barbados from the comfort of their own homes it to help them make that final vacation decision.
Noting current challenges with the Barbados tourism industry and across to the region it may be time for public and private sector leaders in the tourism industry to aggressively approach “Google Inc.” about an initiative to “more aggressively” bring the Google Earth “Street View” capability to Barbados and the region. Our case to Google as I see it would be extremely strong and would be a WIN-WIN for both Google and the region. The Caribbean is one of the most travelled too region in the world therefore to me it only make sense that we have this capability.
Shared links on Google Earth – Street View”
This capability in my opinion would advance the tourism product in Barbados by providing an online visual experience of what so many of us in the Caribbean take for granted every day, which is the “pure beauty of the Caribbean at a street view level”. For a potential visitor to Barbados being able to see “Miami” or “Dover” beaches via a “Street View” level could be the final thing needed for vacation booking to Barbados, which we all benefit from.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.