Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA applied for and has recently received a $500,000 grant from BP’s Gulf Seafood and Tourism Promotional Fund.  In keeping with the application, the grant funding was provided specifically to assist with expenses related to VISIT FLORIDA’s Google Street View Trekker project.  The BP grant funding will help cover expenses related to the project, including the cost for the trekkers to travel the state, production of the captured images and promotion of the final product on Google Maps.

Through an ongoing partnership with Google, VISIT FLORIDA was given the opportunity to become the first in the nation to capture and incorporate images of the state’s 825 miles of beaches into Google Maps.  This project will allow Florida beach images to live in perpetuity on the world’s largest and most used search engine, providing potential visitors around the globe with an incredibly visual and interactive way to help plan their next Sunshine State vacation.

The trekker teams have just reached the halfway point, completing coverage of 400 miles of North and Central Florida beaches.  The image capturing will conclude in November in South Florida, marked by a crossing the finish line event.  Google will then set to work creating the final product which is expected to appear online in Spring 2014.